CHAPTER FOUR: INTERSECTION

The cloudy skies still hung over Cement Town; in fact it started to rain, gloomy atmosphere. The rain was a steady drizzle, nothing too crazy. Most of the residents stayed inside their homes for the time being, it was like almost like a ghost town. It was amazing how the rain could alter the moods of even the most lively of folks.

Envy, awake by now, sat on a tree branch that overlooked the train station plus restaurant and wasn't covered very well from the rain. He, however, didn't mind the rain at all; he felt comfortable as the warm raindrops bounced and slid on his slik and pale skin. He stuck out his tongue, tasting the falling droplets as if they were a thirst-quenching gift from the heavens. His long green and elegant hair draped down over his face and body, giving him a more feminine appearance. Deep amethyst eyes that carried a fierce gleam scanned over the surrounding area for any signs of a train coming through.

He stayed in that position for a while, for as long as it took, to see that darn train finally come.

"Damn, what's taking so long? The train should've been here by now." Envy said, growing slightly impatient.

Shortly after, a loud, but not far off, sound came from a good distance away from where Envy had settled. Even in the rain, the sound was still clear, and Envy could automatically distinguish what made the sound.

"Well speaking of the devil, there it is, finally!" Envy shouted with excitement as if he had been revived from the dead.

"Well Pipsqueak, I'll be seeing you very shortly. I wonder what disguise I should put on now?" Envy purred and chuckled as he fell off his branch onto the ground with ease. Afterwards, he took on the form of the deceased chef envy, himself, stabbed. A devious grin developed on his face as he walked over to the train station.

"Lets see if you take the bait." Envy said returning to a more plain face so his cover wouldn't be blown.

Soon after, the train arrived in front of the restaurant just as planned, and Envy was ready to put his plan into motion. All he had to do was wait until Edward was in view for this to work.

Edward, looking out his window the last second before leaving the train, noticed a chubby looking man promoting some free food item. Edward was rather hungry after the long ride, he decided it shouldn't be too much of a bother to check out what the man was selling.

"Huh, that's weird, I thought the towns officials closed down the restaurant? And I could've sworn it was because the owner died or something. I guess he's got a twin brother, and now he owns the joint now I guess" The driver said to himself out loud.

Ed sort of heard what the driver said, and took that into consideration as a more serious look grew on his face.

After Ed thanked the driver for the service, he quickly made his way over to what the hubbub was all about.

When Envy saw that Ed was alone without Al, it didn't surprise him since it would've been pretty foolish of Ed to carry around a living philosopher's stone around town. But Envy had his methods of getting the coordinates out of the Pipsqueak.

"Why hello there little youngster, did you want to have a free sample of the Funky Burger!?" Chef Envy said enthusiastically.

Ed shot the man a glare, and took a deep breath as if promising himself not to go haywire on anyone who calls him small or any word of the sort. Envy, of course, took delight in making fun of Ed as he snickered to himself quietly without Ed noticing.

"Uh, sure why not. But I have some questions if you don't mind answering?" Ed asked politely.

"Yes, what is it?" Envy asked slightly annoyed yet impressed at Eds skepticism.

"I heard that this restaurant was condemned because the owner of the restaurant died from some unusual phenomena, and now I see the that it's open again, what's up with that?" Ed asked testing the legitimacy of this situation.

Envy had a feeling something like this would happen though, and came prepared with a somewhat believable explanation.

"Oh yes, you're right about that young one, the restaurant was closed down because my twin brother died of some 'strange event.' The official newspaper read that he died to a bear or some fearsome animal due to there being blood stains in the crime scene. Hell, his body was never recovered because of it." Envy said in a depressing and shaken up voice, at the same time looking to cry any moment now. Then he continued.

"You see boy, this is a family business; me and my brother always loved to cook ever since we were young, it made our family proud. And he said to me, 'Phil (Envy's fake identity), If I'm ever disabled to work, or even die, I want you to take over the business for your sake and mine.' And so, I did just that. I had to plead the town officials to open up the business again after the incident, but It certainly wasn't easy. I said for the restaurant to have barbed wire around it so that it would stop any dangerous animals from coming closer, and I wanted security cameras installed so that I could track any suspicious activity in the vicinity." Envy said with slightly more determination in his voice.

"I also promised to pay the officials $100 dollars a month to as tax, and they gladly accepted it, and after receiving a letter in the mail a week later, I finally got the business up and running again!" Envy finished in an uplifting tone.

"Well, I'm sorry for your loss, I know how that must feel in a way. And I'm happy to see your family business still lives on. Thats Equivalent Exchange for ya" Ed said smiling as if this whole story validates his own philosophies.

"Yeah, what you said." Envy said pretending to agree with Ed.

"But where's the barbed wired?" Ed asked, still somewhat suspicious of the story.

"There was a delay on the construction teams' part due to the stinkin weather we've been having lately; rain slows everything down it seems." Envy countered.

"And if you're wondering about the cameras, they'll be installed soon, but that type of technology isn't in mass production in the present time, it's still a relatively new technology, you know?" Envy stated as if to convince Ed to give him a break.

"But luckily, the officials said I could open my doors before any of that stuff takes place, so that's the story." Envy finished, hoping that convinced the seemingly oblivious Pipsqueak.

"Alright, I understand now." Ed said, looking a little more convinced. Envy smiled, feeling accomplished to have fooled Ed of the circumstances. Now comes the next step.

"Well let's get inside the building before we catch a cold." Envy said with haste.

"Lucky for you, you're the very first customer to come to the new and improved restaurant." Envy said looking back at his victim, I mean customer, with a slight smirk.

"Hmm, what a coincidence." Ed simply said as if not surprised by the realization.

"Oh, by the way, this restaurant has a name right? What's it called now?" Ed said.

"Uh, I decided to call it Phil's Diner." Envy said still trying to sound natural.

"Ok, cool." Ed said.

The inside looked somewhat lively. Envy had already lit up candles to give the place a moody touch. There was a small operational radio on the serving counter was playing some jazz music. The tables, walls, and other pieces of furniture looked surprisingly polished with barely any noticable dirt spots. The bottled drinks and beverages were lined up nicely behind the counter on individual rows of shelving. And the overhead fans(3 to be exact) spun normally, maintaining a cooler interior.

Ed was actually impressed that a place once deemed condemned could look so nice and polished. Looks like Envy was putting his shapeshifting abilities to good use, not that Ed would know about that.

As such, Ed took a seat by one of the windows just to watch the rain fall. That, combined with the jazzy radio and candle lighting, created a soothing atmoshpere.

"Thanks for the free service Mr. Phil, I could use it." Ed said with relaxed gratitude.

"No problem. Uh hey, you know, you look like the famous FullMetal Alchemist I've been hearing about. Is that true?" Envy asked trying to initiate his second plan.

"Finally, someone who gets it right dammit." Ed muttered to himself.

"Yes I Am!" Ed exclaimed happily while giving a hand gesture.

"Oh, well I'll be! In that case, you deserve the best of the best young state alchemist!" Envy exclaimed trying to act surprised.

"Oh well, you don't have to go overboard, the meal's already free, but if you insist, I guess I can't turn that down." Ed admits with an embarrassing smile.

"Oh yes, I insist. Just relax and I'll have your burger ready shortly sir." Envy assures him.

With that, Envy proceeds to cook the so-called Funky Burger. In case anyone was wondering, the burger looks like your average large-sized burger, except there's an extra main ingredient that makes it unique from the other burgers on the menu. Ed, oblivious to the meal he was about to eat, kept staring peacefully outside with his elbow on the table and his hand holding up his head, looking bored. Occasionally, Ed would take sneak peeks at what Phil, aka Envy, was doing in the kitchen room that was stationed behind the bar desk area. The door to the kitchen room had a very slight opening, Ed could barely make out what was going on in there. He could hear Phils footsteps though, and as such, when Phils footsteps indicated exiting from the kitchen room to the main dining area, Ed quickly scurried back to his seat to look less suspicious.

"Are doing ok there son?" Envy asked while half his body was peeking out from the door to check on Ed.

"Yeah I'm fine, just waiting patiently." Ed said, slightly out of breath, but doing well not to show it.

"Alright, it won't be long now." Envy promised as he moved back into the cooking room, out of view from Eds sight.

Ed simply waited as he promised until the food was ready. When it was, Phil had brought out a nice tray of food, which consisted of french fries, hash browns, and the main burger. The whole meal made Ed admittedly drool a bit; the sight of the food, the fried aroma, the meal had it all. Phil took special care into making the food looking especially appetizing for his little state alchemist.

"Well, here you go, I hope you enjoy your meal sir." Envy said grinning happily, proud of his own cooking oddly enough.

"Thanks for the special meal, I really appreciate it." Ed said with a smile of gratitude as he sat up right to look over his meal.

Envy put the meal in front of Ed looking satisfied until he just remembered something to go along with the meal.

"Oh! I almost forgot. You need to drink something with your meal; uh, are you old enough to drink alcohol?" Envy asked.

"Do I look old enough to you big fella?" Ed said in an almost sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, good point, your small-ass body wouldn't handle it anyways." Envy stated laughing afterwards.

Ed bared his teeth, hands rolled up in fists, eyes wide with rage as he grunts over the what Phil had said.

"Hey man, don't take it personal…..not unless you wanna prove your a man before you hit puberty." Envy challenged while still giggling to himself over Eds reaction.

"Oh, you wanna bet huh? Fine! I'll accept your damn challenge!" Ed shouted with rage replaced with bravery in his golden eyes.

"Hahahahaha, they grow up so fast, in certain areas anyway." Envy said as he walked over to the bar stand to grab a beer bottle off a shelf. He then went to the kitchen area to quickly grab a glass to pour the liquid in. At that moment, Ed performed an alchemic action on the food by triggering a transmutation circle that he carved under the table which he sat at. The alchemical process was fast, barely audible, and produced little to no light this time. When Envy came back to the dining area in quick time, it was as if nothing happened. Still keeping to the chef role, Envy walks over to hand Ed some good ol alcohol (A/N Please don't do this kids under 21).

"Well here ya are Mr. GrownUp." Envy said with a smirk.

"Thanks, I'll keep it as a souvenir." Ed said only to be met with a confused and rather dissatisfied look from Envy.

"Oh, looks like someone is a sissy-boy, but that's what I would expect from a little boy." Envy said.

"Fuck off!" Ed thought, only to really say "Yeah yeah whatever pops."

Envy giggled quietly at the mention of the word pops, how he could only imagined what it would be like the have the beloved pipsqueak as his son, or something like that.

Moments after the short conversation, the food that Ed transmuted beforehand started to ooze a sort of dark-reddish liquid. Eds turned his attention towards the food for further inspection and noticed said liquid. A quizzical look came about on Eds face as he lacks any recollection of such a substance. Then Ed grew a displeased and suspectful face as he grew all the more suspicious of this Phil guy and the overall circumstances of the restaurant. But still, he played along and pretended like nothing was wrong, to keep the "peace."

Envy seemed to have taken notice of Edwards displeasure body language, and started to grow a bit impatient. "What's the matter, have you lost your appetite too?" Envy wondered, but he had a feeling that FullMetal was catching on.

"Hmm, I guess you could say that." Ed said as he looked back at Envy with curious yet fierce eyes.

At this point, Edward knew that something was horribly wrong with this entire situation, and Envy knew that he couldn't keep up this act.

"Damn pops, I didn't know you cooked with blood in your food, or something like that." Ed said, irritated and convinced that this is no ordinary chef. At the same time, he lifted the tray of food with one hand to prove his point.

"If this liquid was grease or sauce, it wouldn't have this type of color naturally. Now what the hell is this?!" Ed yelled, offended that a seemingly regular person would do this sort of thing, not unless….

Envy simply sighed and shrugged with a smirkish grin on his.

"I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to fool you of all people." He said as a reverted back to his prefered form with a black apron covering most of the front side of his slender figure. The apron seems to have a cartoonish image of a big red X over Eds face. His green hair, slightly darker due to the lighting, flowed graciously down his figure, and his pale skin made him look ghostly.

Ed looked slightly surprised at the revelation, but after considering the given circumstances, he gave Envy a serious expression as he transmuted his signature automail blade and got into his battle stance.

"Envy!..." Ed said in a deep and venomous tone he was not looking forward to this.

Envy slanted his upper body forward to rest both of his arms on the counter table and his left leg over his right in a criss-cross fashion. He looked rather relaxed actually as his purple eyes sparkled with innocence as they gazed over on Eds flustered face. He smiled, as if seeing the Pipsqueak brought out this tucked-away emotion of actual happiness, it was eerie. The orange lighting coming from the scattered candles only added to the newly ominous atmosphere that was brewing. The jazzy music still playing from the radio suggested an odd yet slightly romantic setting of affairs. Ed only wondered what Envy was thinking, why does he appear so calm, and why lure him to a place like this.

The tension in the room remained the same, hostile, yet confusing, but that was until Envy simply replied with, "Welcome to the party Pipsqueak, what's my special guest upset with now?"

Ed stood his ground, still in his combat posture, ready to strike Envy at any moment.

The two kept their positions for a few more moments, but it felt like an eternity for Ed.

CHAPTER 4 DONE