My Body, Your Soul

by Vanilla and Chocolate

An old legend says that kids who dress as monsters on Halloween will find themselves unable to remove the costumes and they've become the monsters. What if someone dressed as Edward Elric? We won't even go there.

2. Chapter 2

I DO NOT OWN THIS STORY. THIS IS A REWRITE. AGENT000 GAVE ME PERMISSION TO REWRITE IT. I AM NOT STEALING IT.

Okay, now that you've all seen that, I can actually say what I want to. So… This is AdventureAddict talking here, some of you may or may not know me. Agent000 and I have gotten a team account, and our first project is taking one of the other's old stories and rewriting it. This was said in the Author's Note last chapter, but it seems not many people read the ANs nowadays, considering how many of you came close to reporting Vanilla and Chocolate for stealing.

Let's get this straight.

VANILLA AND CHOCOLATE IS THE SHARED ACCOUNT OF AGENT000 AND ADVENTUREADDICT.

That is all. Have fun reading.

Disclaimer: What? Okay, I don't claim to own Edward Elric, he merely owns me instead. I'm sure he likes being able to go around bragging about owning someone.

Chapter Two

'How am I going to hide this from my parents?' I reached up and fingered a strand of my newly-blond hair. My parents had set down very clearly that I wasn't allowed to dye my hair until I was eighteen. They didn't like the damage it could cause to my hair.

'Tonight you'll be fine,' Ed reassured me. I shivered and wrapped my coat tighter around my shouldered. I had never thought Halloween night would end up being so cold. It was only October, after all. 'They expect you to look like this tonight. The only thing you have to hide from them is your eyes.'

'I don't know if I can do that.'

'Do you want me to deal with them instead?' I sighed in relief at Ed's suggestion. He chuckled and seemed to take my response as a yes, as I could feel the familiar fog starting to settle over my eyes once more. Once it felt like I had lost all control, Ed took a deep breath and put my hand on the doorknob. He then walked inside, fluttering my eyelids as if he were tired.

"Hey sweetie, how'd it go?" my mom said as soon as Ed was inside. She wrapped us in a hug, making Ed stiffen in surprise from the contact.

"Fine," Ed muttered, taking two steps away from my mother. He kept my eyes nearly closed and rubbed at one eye with a yawn. I grinned. I saw right away what his plan was. As long as he pretended he was exhausted, my parents wouldn't be able to properly seen my eyes, and then he could escape to my bedroom.

"I told you her costume turned out well," my father said, and my mother nodded with a grin plastered on her face.

"I feel so bad about needing to work late," my mom said. Ed sighed and shrugged, still keeping my eyes a centimeter away from closing. His gaze was somewhere between the torsos of my parents and the floor. It started to get a bit harder to tell where he was looking when my eyes were practically closed. It made my vision go blurry.

"Hold it, I'll get the camera and take a picture of you all dressed up," my mom said, turning. I could feel Ed resist the urge to roll his—my—eyes.

'I guess subtlety isn't going to work with these two.' He sighed. I snickered at the comment.

"Look, I'm really tired," Ed said, and my parents both looked at him. "It was a long night, so I just want to go to bed, alright? I'll put my outfit on again later if you want a picture."

"Oh, of course," my mom said, turning back and forgetting about the camera. "I'm sure you're worn out from all your trick-or-treating. You do look exhausted."

Ed breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I am. G'night." Ed turned to go to my bedroom.

"What about our goodnight hugs?" my dad asked. Ed froze in mid-step, sighed and turned back around. I could feel that he was nervous about hugging my parents goodnight.

"Oh. Right," he said slowly, and approached my father. "I forgot."

My dad immediately enveloped us in a huge hug. I was used to it, but Ed clearly wasn't. My dad gave some of the best bear hugs I knew.

"Night," Ed mumbled and turned to my mom. She hugged us around the shoulders. Her hug was much softer than Dad's hug, and I could feel Ed relax a bit more under her touch. At least, he was relaxed until Mom kissed my forehead.

Ed froze and blinked twice. I wondered when he had last been kissed on the forehead, or even kissed period.

"Er… Goodnight," Ed said, still seeming a bit dazed. He then turned and walked out of the living room and to my bedroom.

'I'm not used to getting hugged and kissed like that. Such a touchy-feely family. Geez.'

'Yeah, I could tell you weren't used to it,' I snickered. 'It's okay though, Ed. My parents aren't going to bite.'

'Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.' Ed sighed and opened the door to my room.

Once the door was closed securely behind me, I could feel the fog beginning to lift from my eyes. Ed kept a little bit of control over my body, however, as he pulled the hair tie out of my hair and grabbed a brush off the dresser. I nearly laughed aloud. It felt like Ed had been getting me ready for bed for years.

'You know, I can take care of brushing my own hair.'

"I know," Ed said aloud, smirking at my reflection in the mirror. "But I want to do it."

'Um, okay.' I giggled. I wasn't sure why Ed wanted to brush my hair, but the situation struck me as funny. Here I had thought Ed would do all sorts of amazing things if I met him, and he was simply brushing out my hair before bed. He was silent as he brushed through my hair, occasionally putting the brush down to run my left hand through a tangle. I noticed how careful he was about not touching my new automail arm to my hair.

'Hey, Ed?'

"Yeah?" He kept his eyes on the mirror as he talked and brushed my hair. It was an odd feeling to be looking someone in the eyes while I talked to them while also looking myself in the eye.

'What did you mean when you said you had been hanging around me for a while?'

"Just what it sounds like," Ed muttered. "I've been hanging around you for a while. Ever since you were born, really." I blinked in surprise. I had never thought Ed the type of guy to do that unless the person was very important to him.

'But… What about your brother?'

"Al." Ed stopped brushing my hair and turned away from the mirror to look at the wall. I could feel a small smile tug at the corners of his lips.

'What happened to Al?' I prodded. Ed shook his head and picked up the brush again.

"I died before him," he said softly. "Al lived a much longer life than me, died, and became a wonderful person." I laughed. The way Ed phrased things didn't seem to always make sense. I had gotten used to it after hearing his comments in my head through the night.

'You mean that Al grew up to be a wonderful person and then died, right?'

"Er…" Ed jolted. He did that every time I corrected his grammar. "…Yeah. Right. That's what I meant."

'And what did you mean when you said you didn't mean for this to happen?' Ed rested both my hands on the dresser.

"I haven't had a body of my own for a few years. And then you got so into that television show that's based off me, I figured I'd help you out," he sighed. "I guess the whole thing ended up getting a little… out of control. I didn't mean for you to get all my old clothes. And then when you were wearing all of them… I… I guess I forgot that you're really not me, and I kind of… hopped into you body."

'But what about the automail and my eyes?'

"I have no idea how that happened," Ed sighed and ran a hand through my bangs. "My best guess would be that you and I have sort of… bound together and you ended up taking some of my characteristics. Like we've blended into one body with two souls."

"So you can't get out of my body?" I said, and was surprised to hear my words spoken aloud. I could feel Ed letting go of his control over my body.

'I've tried. I'm sort of… stuck. Or at least, that's the best way I know of how to put it,' He answered back with a sigh. I bit my lip and pulled my nightgown out of one of my dresser drawers. Ed groaned.

"What?" I said with a chuckle, unfolding the nightgown.

'I know you're a girl and all, but… do you really have to wear that? Can't you wear those old penguin pajamas or something?' I laughed again and shook my head.

"Ed, I outgrew those pajamas when I was five," I said. Ed sighed heavily.

'Oh, yeah…'

"You might be surprised at how comfortable a nightgown really is," I said to Ed. A sensation passed over him that felt as if he wanted to roll his eyes, but didn't have the body to do so. A spiritual eye roll.

'And you might be surprised at how uncomfortable a nightgown would be for a guy who's never worn any sort of dress before,' he retorted.

"Ed, I don't want to wear pant bottoms to bed," I sighed, though I was still smiling. It was funny to listen to Ed, even though I did feel a bit sorry for the poor guy. I knew I would feel awkward if I had been the one trapped in a boy's body.

'Fine, fine, I give up. It's your body, after all. Just don't tell anyone the great Edward Elric wore a dress to bed.' He sighed heavily. I chuckled and shook my head. Ed was more of a nut than I had thought from watching the anime.

"My lips are sealed," I said as I slipped the nightgown over my head. Ed seemed a bit awkward at the idea of me changing, but he stayed silent anyway.

I was realizing just how tired I really had gotten from the night of trick-or-treating. My whole body felt like it ached. Bed was sounding like a better and better idea. I ran my left hand through my hair once more and turned to go to bed.

'Wait, what was that?'

I jerked at Ed's voice. He had said the sentence so suddenly that it had surprised me. I turned to look back at the mirror. "What was what?"

'Your hair. Fluff it like that again.'

I frowned. I didn't understand what Ed had seen and was seeming so confused over. I leaned in close to the mirror and rubbed at my hair with my left hand slowly. I didn't want to rub at it with my right hand for fear of the metal getting tangled in my hair.

'There it is again!'

"There's what?" I groaned, putting my hands on my hips. I hadn't seen anything wrong with my hair for Ed to point out. He sighed, and I could feel the fog settling over my eyes again. Ed frowned and picked at strands of my hair with my left hand.

"Aha!" he said after a minute, pulling out one strand. Finally I saw what he had been talking about. There among all the blond hair, was a strand of dark brown hair, the same shade my hair had once been. Ed reached his hand back to my hair again, and grabbed the very bottommost layer of hair and brought it forward to see. The entire bottom layer of my hair was the same brown it had once been.

"Two souls, one body," Ed muttered, and then smiled. "I guess you got to keep some of your own characteristics, after all."

'I guess so. But now it really looks like I dyed my hair. My mom's going to throw a fit when she sees that.' I sighed.

"We'll deal with that in the morning. Right now the most important thing is sleep," Ed said with a grin as he slid my hair back into place.

'Well, look who's Mr. Mature.' I laughed. Ed smirked and shook my head before letting go and giving me control again.

'Yeah, that tends to happen when you're not twelve years old. Still thinking of me like I'm an anime character. You think I'm going to throw a fit at everything and act like an immature brat, huh? Well…'

I rolled my eyes and sighed. Sure, Ed could say he was more mature than the anime portrayal of him, but the ranting didn't help his case at all. I turned off the lights in my room and slid into my bed, pulling the covers up to my chin.

"How old were you when you died, anyway?" I whispered into the darkness. Ed chuckled.

'Nineteen. We can talk more about that tomorrow. Go to sleep.'

Going to sleep was a lot easier said than done for both me and Ed. We had both been through a long day, and while my body was exhausted, neither of our minds were quite ready to go to sleep. I could feel Ed's thoughts racing as I drifted off to sleep. He didn't hide his musings from me, and my head filled with questions over why I had gotten an automail arm from Ed being stuck to me, and wondering if I would be able to get back to normal.

The last thought I could remember thinking before falling asleep was that while I didn't like the thought of having automail the rest of my life, I also trusted Ed.

He seemed both nervous and comforted by the thought.

I woke up the next morning and practically tripped out of bed. I was still used to having two flesh legs, and getting up and remembering two seconds two late that my left leg had recently become metal was not the most pleasant of mornings.

"Morning, Ed," I mumbled, rubbing at my eyes. He grunted in reply. It seemed like neither of us were morning people. Which was a pity, since someone needed to go through the morning routine. I sure didn't want to be the one who needed to wake up and face the day.

"Ow." I frowned and stretched out my flesh limbs. I was a lot sorer than I had ever been after waking up in the morning. It felt like I had recently rammed into a brick wall or done some other similar activity.

'Sorry. I think that's my fault,' Ed sighed. 'I tend to thrash around in my sleep a lot. You might have a couple bruises.'

"Oh." I blinked and rubbed at my shoulder. "Well, at least then I know why I'm sore." I paused and looked in the mirror. "There's no way I can go down to breakfast looking like this." I bit my lip as I looked myself over. No way would my parents be fine with letting me walk around with blond hair or automail that they thought was part of a costume.

'Maybe I can help with that,' Ed said, seeming to consider my appearance. 'Your hair just needs to be dyed, and the automail can be covered up with the right clothes.'

'How can I dye my hair though?' I though back to him. I didn't want my mom to hear me talking to myself in the quiet of the morning and come in my room to check up on me. 'I can't go out of the house to buy any hair dye when my hair's already blond.'

'Well… I could always see if a little alchemy might work,' Ed said, seeming to consider the thought carefully as he said it. 'Then you'd just need a bowl full of water.'

'I think I could manage that,' I thought back, trying to think of if I could manage to sneak to the bathroom and get some water without my parents noticing me. As long as they didn't get out of their bedroom and walk down the hall while I was going to the bathroom, I figured I'd be fine. 'But… are you sure you can do alchemy? I thought you couldn't do it in this world.'

'Nah, I can do it fine in this world,' Ed shrugged. 'That part about the anime is wrong. It's the fact that I'd be doing it through your body instead of my own that has me worried. But I think I can pull it off.'

'Okay, then one bowl of water coming up,' I laughed.

I carefully opened the door to my room, checking to see if my parents were up and about. It seemed empty, so I flung the door open wide and scurried to the other side of the hall and into the bathroom. I felt like I was being a dangerous criminal rather than just making my hair look like it was the right color it was supposed to be. I took a few deep breaths and then turned on the faucet and let the sink begin to fill with water.

'Okay, let me see those strands of your normal hair one more time,' Ed said. I nodded and pulled forward a chunk of the bottom layer of my hair that was its normal color. I stared into the mirror for a minute, letting Ed get a good look at the hair color.

'Okay,' he said after a minute, and I let go of my hair. I could feel the fog beginning to settle over my eyes. I let it settle over me as best I could, hoping that the more Ed was in control instead of me, the better he would be able to do alchemy.

'What about all this light and noise though?' I asked when Ed had control. 'My parents might notice that and…' Ed chuckled.

'Katie. Stop thinking that my life mirrors that 2-D anime kid you saw,' he said firmly. 'There's similarities, but I didn't live that exact life. And those TV people really messed up with their thoughts about what alchemy looks like.'

'They… did?' I felt a little stunned. I hadn't considered that the real Ed's life might be very different from the anime, but it did make sense once I thought about it.

'Let me see if I can show you some real alchemy,' Ed said with a smirk. I chuckled.

He took a deep breath and looked at the water. I could feel his thoughts flicker back to the color of my hair and then back to the water. I then nearly fell over when an enormous amount of numbers and diagrams raced through my head. I knew it had to all be related with turning the water into a hair dye that would match my hair color, but all the calculations were going by too fast for me to even try comprehending any of them. I wondered if Ed was even consciously thinking of all the calculations or if he had been doing alchemy so long that it had become subconscious for him.

"Okay, here goes nothing," he muttered and then clapped his hands together.

I felt a warm energy rush through my body. I was curious about what it could be, so I investigated. The energy almost had a certain… Ed-ish feel to it. I frowned and poked at it.

"Leave it," Ed snapped, clapping his hands to the sink. "You don't want to make your hair dye toxic, do you?" I jumped back from the energy with a nod. I was only curious why the energy felt like Ed. I didn't want to mess him up.

After a minute, Ed pulled away from the sink and brushed my bangs out of my face with a sigh. The water had turned a murky brown color.

'I didn't mean to snap at you. I just didn't want to waste any more energy than I was already using,' he said slowly. 'Alchemy works a bit differently here, so I have to use my own energy. I didn't want you to sap any of it and make it harder for me.'

'Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—'

'Don't worry about it,' Ed said back. He really did sound like he was tired. I could feel him let go and relax back in my body, letting me be the one in control. I bit my lip. I didn't like that he had gotten tired over just performing a transmutation for my sake.

'Don't worry about it, Cat. Just dip your hair into the water.' I nodded and did as Ed told me. I could feel an almost… cold feeling spread up to my scalp. I shivered and pulled my head away from the water.

When I looked in the mirror, my hair looked just like it always had. I grinned and leaned closer to the mirror, jumping slightly in place.

"Ed, you're amazing! Thank you!" I said quickly. He chuckled, seeming amused by my reaction.

'You're welcome. I never thought I'd be called amazing just for a simple transmutation of water though.' He paused for a second, the added, 'It'll wash out in a couple days, and if I don't know how to get you back to normal by then, I'll have to redo the dye. Just be careful not to get more water on your head than you need. The more water, the faster the dye will wash out.'

'I'll keep that in mind,' I thought back, carefully reaching my flesh hand into the sink to drain it.

I carefully crept back through the hall to my room, not wanting to get caught by my parents with my automail arm and leg. But at least that would be somewhat easier to calm them down over than hair that wasn't my normal hair color. I could always claim I had been so tired that I had accidentally left on the metal parts from my costume before going to bed.

With Ed's advice, I carefully picked the baggiest long sleeve shirt I had in my wardrobe. Normally I hated the fact that the sleeves were so long they would keep covering my hands, but when one of my hands was automail, that very disadvantage became a plus. I needed to find some way to make sure I could hide the automail from my parents.

'Now just wear some sunglasses to cover your eyes and you should be fine,' Ed said when I was looking over my appearance in the mirror. I bit my lip. That was going to seem suspicious to my mom for sure. Nevertheless, I pulled a pair of sunglasses of my dresser and put them on.

I headed down to breakfast carefully, trying my hardest not to make my left foot thump louder than my right. I didn't want anything about me to stick out more than it already did.

"Good morning, sweetie," My mom said when I entered the kitchen. I smiled back at her. "I made you some scrambled eggs and put them at your seat."

"Thanks, Mom." I sat down at my seat.

'Be careful with your right hand. I'm not sure whether you have the same control on it as I did when I was alive. You could easily bend that fork.'

'Good thing I'm left handed, then,' I laughed, putting a forkful of eggs in my mouth with my left hand.

'Yeah, good thing.'

I chuckled silently between bites of eggs, and then reached for the glass of milk my mom had placed at my seat. Breakfast seemed to be moving smoothly enough.

I immediately spat the milk back out, spluttering. I slammed the glass back on the table and stared at it with a look of confusion. My mom looked over at me.

"Mom, the milk must be sour," I said. "It tastes awful." My mom frowned and walked over to the table, picking up my glass. She sniffed at the milk, then took a sip and licked her lips thoughtfully.

"It tastes fine to me," she declared after a minute. "You can always have some orange juice if you want." I nodded and stood up, walking over to the fridge. I needed something to get the taste of that awful milk out of my mouth. I wasn't sure how my mom could say it tasted fine.

'People always told me milk tasted fine too,' Edward sulked. 'At least you didn't throw up from drinking that sip.'

'You used to throw up from milk?' I said in surprise as I grabbed the orange juice from the fridge and then turned and grabbed a glass form the cabinet. Ed nodded with a scowl. 'So you think milk suddenly tastes bad for me because of you?'

'Probably. I—'

"Sweetie, why are you dressed like that?" My mom said, interrupting Ed in the middle of his sentence. I jerked. I knew she would notice the baggy shirt and sunglasses soon enough. My mind went blank. I had no idea what to tell her. Thankfully, I could feel Ed slipping into control.

"There's a presentation in class today," he said, turning around and smiling at my mom. "I get to play the hobo. I wanted to make sure I wouldn't misplace my sunglasses, so I figured I'd just wear them."

"Oh, alright," my mom said, seeming taken aback by my answer. I knew she wasn't used to the thought of school presentations involving parts and costumes, much less me actually taking a part more important than the tree. I had terrible stage fright.

Ed poured out the glass of orange juice and practically chugged it, making sure to swish it around my mouth to get rid of any leftover milk taste. He then grabbed my backpack from of the floor and slung it over one shoulder.

"Have a good day at school, honey," my mom called out. She had already gone back to washing the dishes in the kitchen.

"Bye," Ed called back, and was then out the front door in a flash. He breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the door, letting go of control again. It seemed a little ridiculous how often we were flipping back and forth, but I was more than happy to let Ed deal with my parents when something needed to be covered up. He was a much better liar.

'That was a little close,' He said, and I nodded in agreement, beginning the walk to school. 'We'll have to try and be even more careful at school to make sure you don't stick out too much compared to your normal behavior.' I bit my lip.

I couldn't agree more. I just wasn't sure if the task would be possible.

So… reading over this whole story again, I pretty much slapped a hand to my forehead and went "Holy crap, what did I get myself into here?" I had to go through the entire original story and take notes for myself in order to make sure I get all this right. Here's hoping I do. –crosses fingers-