Al awoke to shouts and banging on the train. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, noticing that Lexi had already left. "What time is it Brigadier General?" He asked Roy, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and standing up.
"Around ten o'clock, you slept for a good three hours."
"What's that noise?" Asked Al, walking over to the window and looking out.
"It's the rain; we're currently stuck in a….questionable area due to it. That's what you're hearing." Lexi walked into the compartment as Roy finished talking and sat down next to Al.
"We should be moving soon, I just talked to the driver."
"Good…Brigadier General, where are we?"
"We're in the remnants of Ishbal. This is the war that I fought in. This is where dreams were shattered in the blink of an eye." Roy rubbed his eyes and stood up, "Stay on your guard. I'm going to find the rest of my subordinates." He saluted and walked out the door. Al walked over to the window and looked out at the rain pouring down.
"Al, do you know where your brother is?" Asked Lexi, walking over to him and putting her hand on his shoulder.
Al shook his head, "But I know he's alive." He stopped, wiping the fog off the window. "Lexi, there's a…cat out there." With that he ran out of the compartment and out into the rain. The kitten mewed loudly as he picked it up. The kitten had white fur that was covered in mud, and it was crying loudly.
"Poor thing," said Lexi, following Al out into the rain, "But how are we going to keep it? You're going to help re-establish a government. You can't just have a cat following you around." She led Al by the arm into the compartment, Al still holding onto the kitten. It stopped crying once they had put his coat over it, and promptly fell asleep in Al's lap.
"I'm not just going to leave it. After all, Lieutenant Hawkeye has Hayate, so why can't I have a cat? I hope he won't be too much trouble."
Lexi sighed and sat down across from him and the kitten, "Well, if you're going to keep him, he'll need a name."
Al scratched the kitten's head, "Dakota."
There was a sudden jolt as the train began to move again, causing the Dakota to wake and mew with discontent. Lexi laughed as the kitten tried to eat the end of Al's ponytail.
After about a couple hours the train began to slow down, causing Al and Lexi to grab their luggage and get off the train with Dakota in tow. They were met by Riza and Hayate, who immediately began to chase Dakota around their owner's legs. "Alphonse, what is that thing?" Asked Riza, pulling out her gun and firing out a warning shot into the cold night air.
"It's a kitten. He was all alone in the cold, so I thought that…" Al broke off and stooped down, grabbing Dakota by the scruff of his neck.
Riza's eyes softened slightly, "Don't let him get in the way of your work." With that note she walked away to find her commanding officer and issue orders to the lower ranking officers.
After about an hour standing in the cold night air they finally had assignments. Al was to go help Mustang and his subordinates try and put a stable government in place. Lexi was going to go help Kain Furey and Breda organize food and home building. Al gave Lexi a kiss on the cheek and went with Mustang and his subordinates towards the center of the town. The sun was beginning to rise as Lexi followed Breda and Furey towards the makeshift base on the northern part of town.
"Okay," said Lexi, pulling back her long brown hair. "We'll need to create some form of building where we can give out food to the citizens of Lior. Next we'll need to build a building for the government, and then we can move on to creating some form of housing for the people." Furey pulled out a notebook and wrote it down as Lexi explained it further.
"How long do you think this'll take?" Asked Breda, leaning in to the small table where they were sitting.
"That depends; how many people do we have helping?" Asked Lexi, rubbing her eyes wearily.
"Around thirty," said Furey.
"Crap," said Lexi, pounding her fist on the table. "Then it'll take around two months."
Breda groaned and out his feet up on the desk, "Then we'll need to start as soon as the sun goes up."
A/N A short chapter because I'm a little stuck with Al on his side of the gate. Oh well, its summer officially now so I'll try and update more. More ideas would be AWESOME!
Snow-I plan on using your idea next chapter, I'm alternating between Al and Ed during this story.
Flying drumsticks- I'm glad you liked it, and I hope this is a quick enough update for you
