"Hm." I hummed to myself, tapping my chin with one hand. Ed, Al and I were currently waiting at the station, waiting for the next train to Central. I was getting us some food with Al while Ed had excused himself to make a phone call.

We were standing at a booth that was emitting a fabulous smell. I had to hand it to this opportunistic old lady, she could really make a bread roll. Which was a good thing, because she was the only booth in the vicinity. I had chosen two types of meat filled rolls but I was struggling to choose a third. They were all just so tempting!

"Is it really that hard to decide?" Al asked.

I felt passion rise within me and I threw my hands in the air dramatically. "Of course it matters! They all smell so delicious, and we may never have time again to come sample this wonderful woman's fabulous cooking," I shouted with a theatrical bow to the old woman. Just like I hoped, the old gal blushed and gave a giggle. "Such a charmer," she simpered.

Al laughed beside me. "Come on, Alex, get your muffins before you give the poor lady a heart attack."

"It's not my fault you're so beautiful, little brother," I said, bending over and selecting my last choice. Al spluttered and made a playful swipe at my head, which I dodged without even looking up.

"Al," Edward shouted across the way. His voice was a bit drowned out by the sound of the train leaving behind us. "Wrap it up guys, we need to get on that train!"

"Now?" Al asked in disbelief, eying the train that was already ten feet gone. "Change of plans!" Ed shouted back at us as he took off running.

We made it, but it was a close thing. A few minutes later found us sitting on hard benches in the passenger car. Ed was leaning against the window with a bun stuffed in his face on one bench, while Al and I sat on the other.

"What's so special about this train anyway," I asked sullenly. I felt really bad when I had to throw money at the poor stand operator before taking off. I didn't even know if it was enough!

Edward shrugged his shoulders. "Heck if I know," he mumbled through a mouthful of bun. "I can't get a read on this Mustang guy, it's like he's trying to be difficult."

I rolled my eyes and bit into my own bun. It melted in my mouth. "Mmmmm," I groaned in delight. It tasted somewhere between a donut and a barbeque sandwich. That old woman really knew her stuff. Al chuckled at my comical expression.

"Must be really good," he said.

I turned my head to look up at him. Even sitting down he was a foot taller than me. "The greatest," I said with a big grin.

"You have sauce on your face."

I slapped my hand over my mouth in embarrassment. Al huffed in amusement.

"Do you want a taste," I asked, a bit tentatively. We had discovered after I came back that If Al avoided direct contact with my skin he could get the gist of what I was experiencing without delving too deep into my emotions.

Izumi had put some of my fears to rest about the empathy link. She didn't know much about my situation, but she did know a thing or two about soul seals. She told me that as long as Al's soul was attached to the seal, he could not push mine out of this body. It acted as an anchor, and the only way to separate him from the armor is to destroy the seal. That, at least, solved one of the problems. I wasn't going anywhere just because he touched me.

Other issues still remained to be resolved, however. Al and I still needed to have an in-depth discussion about how he felt about all of this. Did it hurt him emotionally every time we touched because he only got a 'taste' of what it was like to have a body, or was it his only balm and comfort, the only thing that made his existence bearable?

I had to consider my feelings about it as well. I felt…guilty. It was irrational, I knew, because it was not my fault. I'm sure if I said it out loud, Al would say the same. Still, it was there like a constant ache in my chest. I wanted to help, and if enduring a little emotional strain was all it took, then I would.

"Is that all right?" he asked, just as hesitantly.

I smiled gently. "Of course!" I pulled up my hood and carefully leaned against him, taking a big bite of my bun. Vaguely, I felt his emotions, but it was like trying to see something in a rainstorm, and it was far from unbearable. Delight filtered through our link from both of us as I finished my food.

Edward watched out of the corner of his eye from where he sat across from us, his face inscrutable, but when I looked up at him, he looked away.

My relationship with Edward was…tentative at best. I knew he still blamed himself for what he had done to all of us, and in some ways, so did I. In my eyes, it was his fault. But my year away had done me a world of good. Just as all injuries, time had turned my mortal wounds into thick, ropy scars, and I was able to see things from a different perspective than just my own. They were just children. The desperation to regain their mother, and the sinful books they had had access to, and being too smart for their own good: all of it compounded into one hell of a freak disaster. I wasn't blind. I could see that these were good kids who just wanted to see their mother smile again. And like children, they ignored the warnings of experienced adults just because they were in the way of something they wanted, and got hurt.

I was no longer angry with him. I could see that he was trying to make it right, and I respected him for it. We wouldn't be friends right away, and we may never quite be brothers, but in the years ahead, (and in my heart I knew it would be a long time) we could work together without too much animosity.

Still, just because I had resolved my feelings didn't mean Ed did. Unlike Al, he wasn't so trusting and accepting of my presence. He still treated me like an outsider, and his walls were a bit difficult to get through. I supposed I could only keep trying and that eventually time would bring them down.

Ed looked away and continued to chew his food.

"Ah," Al looked up and noticed a small face peeking over the seat behind Edward. A small child looked curiously at Al, but ducked behind the seat once she saw he noticed her. Alphonse slumped a bit. "Brother, am I scary?"

"Don't be silly Al," Ed scoffed with a joking smile, "you're kindness in a can."

The child tried to whisper, but we could clearly hear her speaking to her mother, who attempted to shush her. "Mama, he's strange."

A spike of depression came through our link, and I pulled away slightly. Al hung his arms in front of him and made a pitiful noise. Ed and I exchanged a look and he stood and turned around, intending to shush the child when he froze. Slowly, he sank back down to the seat.

"Geese, everyone's staring at us. Who ordered the ticket to the normalcy express?"

"Really?" I asked, peaking around the booth. Sure enough, we were receiving some pretty intense looks. I sat back, unsettled. Al sighed and I gave him a comforting pat. The girl peaked back over the booth and gave a tentative wave.

"There, see," Ed encouraged, "she's not afraid of you. She likes you! Right?" He turned to the girl and gave a charming grin. She nodded with a cute giggle. Al perked up and waved back, his arm clanking slightly.

A couple hours passed and Ed had slowly sunk down into the seat, taking a nap. I was slightly jealous of his ability to sleep anywhere, since Al had taken out a book and I was currently staring bored out the window. I probably would have sat like that all the way to Central, save for what happened next.

"Hey, there is a kid with a suit of armor. He's not that short." I pulled my eyes from the window to see a tall man addressing us. He had gray hair and squinty eyes, and he was looking at me in slight confusion.

Hearing the word 'short', Edward instantly woke. He sat up and the man startled. "Whoa, I didn't even see you. Colonel wasn't kidding."

I'm pretty sure I hear a vein pop. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THEY CAN'T BE SEEN WITHOUT A MAGNIFYING GLASS, YOU JERK!"

The man backed up. "Wha–I didn't say–" Swiftly, he cut himself off and fell to his knee, whipping a gun out from behind his back, and pointing it at the man beside him. He wasn't fast enough. Two men wearing dark jackets stood surrounding him, pointing their guns at his head. Slowly he dropped his weapon. "What the–" The man behind him promptly cut him off with the butt of his gun. The gray haired man fell to the floor unconscious.

"All right, listen up! We don't need any heroes today. Everybody put your hands up and shut up."

The three of us exchanged glances before lifting our hands in surrender. Discreetly, I flicked my eyes around us, trying to take in as much of the situation as I could. While we had been distracted, the two men had gotten close and were now pointing their guns at civilians. They wore dark clothes and sunglasses like thugs from an old film. If the situation hadn't been so serious, I might have laughed.

"Hey you! Take off the helmet," one of the thugs shouted at Alphonse.

"Um," he said, hesitating.

Irritated, the man pointed his handgun at the person closest to him threateningly. That person happened to be me. Joy. I brought my hands up to my chest in a placating gesture. "I said take it off!" I felt Ed and Al tense on either side of me.

Ed gasped loudly and pointed behind the men in front of us, an expression of abject horror on his face. "Aaaagh, What is that?"

"What–" the man turned around to see what the fuss was about. Instantly, I took advantage of his distraction. I snapped my palm against his wrist and grabbed his arm, pinning the side of the weapon against my shoulder towards the window, and slammed my knee into his groin. As he bent foreword with a gasp I reached over and wrenched the gun out of his weakened grip and used it to bludgeon his head. He felt to the floor in a heap. I wracked the weapon and discovered it hadn't even been chambered. What an idiot.

Beside me, Ed took out his opponent just as quickly. He kneed the guy in the gut just as he was about to shoot me and followed up with a hook to the temple. He crumpled on top of his companion with a dull thump.

"Thanks," I said, once I made sure the threat was neutralized. Ed gave me a cocky grin.

"You dumb kids, what are we supposed to do now," shouted a man from the other side of the compartment. "If we had cooperated, we would have been fine! Now they are going to come and investigate when their men don't show up."

I huffed a bit in annoyance. I could have gotten shot, damnit!

"We'll figure something out, old man," Ed said obnoxiously before turning on his heel and stalking towards the exit. "Come on guys, let's see what's going on out there."

With a reckless feeling, I held the loaded gun at the ready and turned to follow, Al clanking along beside me.

Wow, guys, I'm not going to lie, that was a bit difficult to write. But there you go! We are finally getting to Central!

I'm going to tell you right now, this will not be a rewrite of the entire series with a third person tagging along. I hate it when authors do that. I will be following the basic events of the animes, but I probably won't recreate every episode word for word. The way I write em is to watch the episodes of the next story arch only once, and then create the scenes by memory. That way I'm not just repeating exactly what happened and you guys aren't bored with reading "Fullmetal Alchemist: the Novel." Some chapters will be very similar to the series, but I've got a huge sub-plot building, so hopefully that will keep it fresh. Also, like I said before, this will be a bastardized version of both FMA and FMAB, so please don't get too excited. I assure you, I'm doing it on purpose.

Yay, the boys get in their first real fight. HOO-RAH! One last thing. Does anybody know exactly when Ed discovers the legend of the philosophers stone? I'm having a hard time remembering. Next Chapter: Action! And Mustang!

Please Review! My heart melts a little with every kind word!