Chapter Ten:
Pickpockets and Automail
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No, it's not!"
"Yes, she is!"
"Listen Annora, we are not bringing that damn dog with us!!"
Annora glared at Ed as she held Twilight protectively in her arms, her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Ed, we are bringing Twi with us," she stated in a no-nonsense tone. The alchemist rolled his eyes as he turned around and walked away.
"No, we're not, and that's final," he told Annora over his shoulder. "If you haven't noticed, Al and I travel around a lot, and that means that we can't take care of an animal."
Annora shot a dirty look in the alchemist's direction as she set the black and white puppy down on the floor.
"Who said that you would be taking care of her? I've had a dog before; I know what to do."
"Both of you, knock it off," Winry interjected suddenly, stepping in between the two arguing teenagers with a wrench raised threateningly. "Ed, I'll take care of Twilight, and that way Annora can pick her up when you guys go back to Central, okay?"
Ed glanced over at his childhood friend with a slightly wary expression on his face before he hastily agreed.
"Okay, fine."
Annora shot Winry a thankful look in response as the other girl grinned at her. Ed, on the other hand, looked far less than thrilled at the prospect. The teenage alchemist scowled as he turned around and stalked off in the direction of his room. Annora and Winry both raised their eyebrows as they watched Ed go up the stairs before Annora glanced over at Al.
"Hey, Al, what's up with Ed? He's acting almost like he expects the Grim Reaper to pop up and take him."
Al sweatdropped at the remark that the teenager had made before he answered her question in a somewhat evasive tone.
"It's not that, Brother's just nervous about meeting someone in the South. We need to go and ask her some questions, and the last time we saw her… well, it was very memorable," the fifteen-year old muttered. Annora's eyebrows shot up even higher into her hairline as she gave Al a skeptical look before she shrugged.
"Alright, if you guys don't want to tell me right now, that's fine," she pointed out as she headed outside to play with Twilight. "Just do me a favor and warn me if I'm going to have to dodge airborne projectiles or the like before I get hit by something."
The sixteen-year old sat down on the front steps and watched Twilight race around the yard annoying Den, although she wasn't exactly paying any attention to the puppy-induced chaos that was taking place in front of her. Annora rested her chin in her hand and stared straight ahead as her mind went back to thoughts of home.
'I can't believe that it's almost been two months since I left home. Almost every day I used to wake up and think that this was all a dream, but now I've almost accepted the fact that I'm in some weird world where alchemy actually exists. Has anyone besides Katie even noticed that I'm gone?'
Annora's eyes widened at the thought before she buried her head in her hands and groaned.
"Aw shit, Mom and Dad have to be freaking out by now after not hearing from me for almost two months!"
It was at that moment that her cell phone started to ring, startling the teenager out of her thoughts. Not noticing the fact that a certain alchemist was standing right behind her and had been for some time, Annora pulled her cell phone out from the front pocket of her jeans and looked at it. Shock flooded through her when she caught sight of the phone number, and she immediately flipped open her cell phone and answered it.
"Dad?"
"Hey Annora, how are you? Your mother and I were wondering how you've been doing lately, and we decided to call."
Annora gave a weak smile in response before a thought came to her. "Wait, you guys aren't back yet?"
"No, sorry love, but we won't be back in the states until the beginning of February at least, and it's only the middle of December right now," her father told her. Annora slumped with disappointment at the statement before she decided to change the topic.
"So, how's China?" she asked brightly. A small grin made its way across her face when her father let out a heartfelt groan.
"Don't even get me started," he muttered. "I swear that if I ever get my hands on the sick and twisted prick that sent your mother and I over here to arrange trade agreements between our company and its Chinese equivalent, they won't be able to sit down without wincing for a month."
"Poor you," Annora said teasingly. "I'm sorry that you and Mom are stuck over there for another two months."
"It may be even longer," her father pointed out darkly. "By the way, where are you? When I called the house, you didn't pick up."
Annora froze as she tried to think of a valid excuse, only to almost jump out of her skin when Ed sat down on the steps next to her. The teenage alchemist raised an eyebrow when he saw the startled look on the girl's face.
"Who are you talking to?" he asked, and Annora immediately got an idea.
"My dad's on the phone right now," she pointed out before returning her attention to her conversation. Her father immediately questioned as to who she was talking to.
"Annora, who was that?" he stated in a strangely calm tone. Annora's eyebrows shot up into her hairline as she looked at her cell phone before she answered.
"That's my friend Ed. We're over at his house studying for a science quiz."
"Ed huh? I assume that's short for Edward, correct?"
"Yeah… he's in a couple of my classes at school, and he just recently moved here from Colorado. Katie knows him too if you want to ask."
By this point, Ed was thoroughly confused because he was only hearing about half of the conversation. The teenage alchemist was staring at Annora like she had lost her mind as her father chuckled and quizzed her on her earlier statement.
"It would seem that you like this boy if you're so ready to defend him," he pointed out. Annora flushed an interesting shade of red as she made a strangled noise before she managed to respond.
"Dad, he's just a friend!!"
"Sure he is," he muttered amusedly. "Well, Annora, it looks like I have to let you go. I hope that your mother and I can come home soon, and give my regards to your friend. Love you."
And with that comment, he hung up.
Annora stared at the phone in her hands before she snapped it shut and put it back in her pocket with a sigh. Ed watched her in obvious interest before he ventured to ask a question.
"Uhh… what was that all about?"
"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" Annora turned an even more interesting shade of red as she looked away from Ed. "That was just my dad… being my dad… that's all."
Ed raised an eyebrow in interest before he shrugged and stood up. "If you say so. Oh, by the way, we'll be leaving for the train station in an hour and a half, so if you don't want to get left behind I would suggest that you get your stuff packed up."
"Just can't wait to get on the road again, huh?" Annora muttered dryly as she stood up and headed inside. "Out of curiosity, where are we going?"
"Dublith; it's a city in the south, and it's hot in the summer. A hell of a lot better than Central where it's so cold that you can freeze your ass off just by opening a window."
"Says the weenie country boy who hates having fun," Annora mumbled under her breath. "Besides, Ed, it's the middle of winter right now. It's supposed to be cold."
Ed stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her, an irritated look shining in his golden eyes.
"What was that?" he growled. Annora looked slightly surprised before she smirked at the teenage alchemist.
"You heard me, hobbit boy."
"FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT A GOD DAMMNED HOBBIT!!!"
"You know, when you deny it so loud, it just makes that statement even truer."
"SHUT UP!!!"
"Make me, killjoy."
A loud snapping sound was heard, and Annora was forced to run for her life as Ed transmuted his automail arm into a blade. Winry and Al both watched from the window as Ed chased Annora all over the yard until finally the girl ran over to a large oak tree and scrambled up to the highest branch that would still hold her weight and not break. Ed stood at the base of the tree and glared up at Annora, who was clinging to a branch about halfway up the trunk as though her life depended upon it.
"Get down here!"
"Not on your life!!"
"How about you come down willingly before I take drastic measures?!"
Annora scowled as she shot the alchemist a dirty look. "Ed, every measure you take is drastic!"
"Just get down here before you fall and break your neck!!" Ed snapped, his eyes flashing with irritation before he added in an undertone. "Or before I break it for you."
"I heard that!!"
"Good, then you know I'm serious!!"
"Yeah, well I'm serious about living long enough to get my damn drivers license!! Now piss off before I throw something at you!"
"What, an acorn? Annora, just come down here before I go up there and get you!"
"Why don't you lose the sword-arm first, and then maybe we'll talk. Until then - Ed, what are you-? Oh no, you wouldn't. Ed - Ed put the sword down, now. Aw shit!"
Ed had just swung back and was about to start chopping down the tree when Annora jumped down, and landed right on top of him. The two teens fell to the ground with a loud 'whump', raising a large cloud of dust as a result. Not surprisingly, Annora was the first one to recover and she immediately took off like a shot before Ed could regain his senses.
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Ed scowled as he drummed his fingers restlessly along the wooden frame of the windowsill to the sleeper car that they were in. Usually he would have just gotten tickets for him and Al in the main part of the train, but when Winry had found out that he had meant to go straight to Dublith, a three-day trip by train, she had politely insisted that he at least invest in a room on a sleeper car while gripping a wrench tightly in her right hand. He glanced over at Annora, who was sound asleep and snoring softly on the top bunk, her right hand resting lightly on a thick hardcover book that she had been reading before she had dozed off.
Al looked over at him curiously. "Brother, what's wrong?"
"I'm not really sure," the elder Elric admitted hesitantly. "Maybe it's just that I'm nervous about going to back to see Teacher, but I can't really shake the feeling that something's not quite right."
"What doesn't feel right, Brother?"
"I don't know; that's what's pissing me off!" Ed growled angrily as he clenched his hands tightly into fists. "It's just some sort of… sense that something bad is going to happen, but I don't know what or when!"
At that point, Annora cracked an eye open and looked at the two brothers groggily.
"What's going on?" she mumbled as she sat up and ran a hand through her hair.
"Brother's being paranoid," Al supplied before Ed had a chance to make something up.
"I am not paranoid!" Ed gritted out just as Annora lightly kicked him in the back of the head. "Hey, what was that for?!"
"Knock it off, will you?" Annora pointed out in obvious exasperation. "You've been in a pissy mood all day, and to be honest, I'm sick of it. I know that we're all tired and we've been traveling almost all day, but look on the bright side; in another two days, we'll be in this town that you talked about, and then you'll be able to ask this person your question. Until then, though, just chill out."
Ed shot her a filthy look in response, and Annora just responded by rolling her eyes.
"What was that look for? It's not like I burned up all the rum or something."
"You did what with what?" Ed asked in obvious confusion, earning a look of absolute disbelief from Annora.
"How can you not know about Pirates of the Caribbean?" she asked, only to have Ed shake his head. "You speak blasphemy!!"
"You talk about a lot of crap that I have absolutely no idea as to what the hell it is," Ed pointed out scathingly. "Why should this be any different?"
Annora ignored the jab as she climbed down from the fold-out bunk and retrieved her laptop from under the bottom bed that Ed was using, quickly opening it up and placing it gently on a tiny table right across from the beds.
"Okay, both of you need to prepare for an education in the fine art of Disney's only PG-13 movie, well, at least before the second Pirates was made," the sixteen-year old stated with an amused grin on her face as she opened up a movie file and hit 'play'. The girl motioned for Ed and Al to join her on the bottom bunk just as the opening credits started. The two boys exchanged hesitant looks before they went over and sat down, although Al was the only one that noticed the evil grin that flickered across Annora's face.
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Two hours, multiple innuendos, and countless zingers later
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Annora smirked in triumph as she watched Ed stare at the compute screen in obvious bewilderment. The teenage alchemist had been rendered completely speechless at the first eunuch comment near the beginning during the sword fight between Jack Sparrow and Will Turner, much to Annora's intense amusement. The girl silently thanked any nearby celestial beings for Al's innocent mind, seeing as the fifteen-year old stuck inside an empty suit of armor had not gotten any of the hidden meanings behind some of the comments made. Ed, on the other hand, had understood each and every single one of them.
"This is a kid's movie?!" he demanded in disbelief, his golden eyes flashing angrily. "What the hell were those people thinking when they wrote this?!"
"Hey, if you think this one is bad, the second Pirates is worse. They have an unspoken ball joke in there," Annora pointed out with a shrug. "But you have to admit, this movie is pretty funny."
Ed stared at her for a few moments before he crossed his arms over his chest and looked away. Annora arched an eyebrow in question when she heard the boy mutter something under his breath.
"What was that?" she asked calmly, not expecting a civil response. Ed glanced over at her and gave the teenager an impish grin, obviously relishing the opportunity of catching the girl off guard.
"I said, 'but why is the rum gone?'" he pointed out mischievously. Annora stared at Ed in blatant astonishment for several seconds before she started laughing.
"You little shit, you did that on purpose!"
"Why else would I have done it?"
Annora gave the teenage alchemist a searching look before she shrugged. "I don't know, but I guess the reason that I didn't expect you to say something like that was because I kind of thought that you were… well… a stick in the mud."
"Brother has a tendency to give that impression," Al admitted. Annora was forced to stifle a snort of laughter as Ed turned a very interesting shade of red.
"I do not!" he shouted. Annora and Al both burst out laughing at the boy's response, serving to only further irritate Ed. The Fullmetal Alchemist glared at both of them before he turned away and crossed his arms over his chest with an offended huff. Annora grinned and shook her head, deciding that the teasing had gone on long enough. While Al and Ed started arguing at the top of their lungs, she closed down the movie viewing program and opened up her internet link in the hope of distracting the brothers. When she got to her home page, she motioned Ed and Al over before going to Google.
"Check this out you two. You know how I keep saying that I can find out a bunch of information without even going to a library? This is how I do it," Annora explained.
Ed gave the girl a skeptical look before he examined the computer screen closely.
"Huh, for something that can do what you say it can, it sure doesn't look like much," he commented. Annora shrugged as she cast a sidelong glance at the teenager out of the corner of her eye.
"That's because I haven't put anything in to be searched for yet," she pointed out. "For instance, if I type in your name and hit search…"
The sixteen-year old typed the words 'Edward Elric' into the search box and hit enter, and when the search results came up, Annora stared at the screen in absolute astonishment before she let out a low whistle.
"Holy shit, Ed, you just got over six hundred thousand hits on your name…" she breathed as both Ed and Al peered over her shoulders in interest. "If you really want to get technical, there's about 660,000 of them. Holy freaking shit."
"You've said that twice now," Ed pointed out irritably. "What's the big deal anyway? I'm pretty well-known because I'm the youngest State Alchemist in history. The youngest person before me who passed the test was twenty-five."
"No, you don't understand. This is not normal. If I searched my name, I'd be lucky to get a hundred hits," Annora explained. "This is insane, absolutely insane. I mean, you're on Wikipedia for God's sake! That's a bloody encyclopedia site!!!"
Ed arched his eyebrows in obvious surprise as he leaned forward to look at the computer screen. "Let me see."
"Go ahead, knock yourself out," Annora muttered as she got out of the chair to let Ed go through the Google findings for himself. The teenager clambered back up onto her bunk and was immersed in a book by Clive Cussler, Shock Wave, which had been in her backpack, within moments. All was quiet for almost an hour, and Annora was considering putting away her book and going to bed when Ed suddenly let out a startled yelp and pushed himself away from the computer.
"Brother, what's wrong?" Al asked from where he was sitting. Ed could only make a disgusted stammering noise as he pointed at the glowing screen with a shaking finger. Annora raised an eyebrow as she set her book down and got out of her bunk, going over to where the alchemist was seated.
"Alright, what's the big deal?" she muttered as she looked over Ed's shoulder at the computer screen. Annora quickly scanned the web page that Ed had been reading, and her chocolate eyes widened in horror at the passage that she read. The sixteen-year old exploded with a stream of blue-lightning curses, some of them in another language, as she immediately scrolled up, noted the site that the document was located on, and closed the window. Once she had accomplished this task, Annora then turned off her computer and stuffed it back into its fabric carrying case.
"Okay, I think we've had enough fun with the internet and Google for today," she pointed out shakily as she sat down on the bottom bunk and shuddered. After several moments of silence, Ed finally looked over at her accusingly.
"What in the hell was that?"
"How should I know?!" Annora shot back before she buried her head in her hands. "I've never even heard of a website called FanFiction, much less… yaoi. Oh my God, I think I'm gonna hurl."
"You're gonna hurl?!" Ed shrieked, his voice rising to an uncomfortably high pitch. "How do you think I feel?!!"
"Well, I know that I'll never be able to look at Colonel Mustang the same way again," Annora muttered. Al gave both of them a curious look.
"Brother, Annora, what's wrong?"
"You don't want to know," both teens responded simultaneously in a deadpan tone. Alphonse was extremely puzzled, but he could get nothing out of either of the teenagers for the rest of the night until they went to bed.
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"Remind me again why we're out here being harassed by an entire town of automail junkies," Ed grumbled darkly. Annora sighed and rolled her eyes in response, mentally counting to ten in an effort to keep her temper in check as Al just shook his head. This was the third time in the past half-hour that Ed had made that comment, and Annora was dangerously close to booting the alchemist into the next water bucket that she saw.
"Ed, the reason that we're out here and walking around is because the engine broke down, and it won't be fixed until early evening at best," Annora pointed out calmly. "I don't know about you, but I defiantly don't want to spend the next six hours sitting on a train doing nothing."
"Yeah, well you don't have freak jobs coming up to you and pestering you about your automail every ten seconds," Ed grumbled as he shot a venomous glare at a mechanic that had been following them. The mechanic let out a frightened squawk and scurried away, obviously scared by the death glare that Ed had given him.
"I hate Rush Valley," the boy groused as he turned back around. Annora let out another sigh and was just about to say something when a boy maybe a year or two younger than her suddenly bumped into her rudely and tried to disappear into the crowd.
"Hey, wait a minute," the sixteen-year old growled as her right hand instinctively flew to her pants pocket. "That little son of a-"
"What?" Ed asked her, only to have Annora throw her backpack at him and take off running after the other boy.
"Get your ass back here, you little shit!" she shouted, and was rewarded for her efforts by the pickpocket glancing back at her and flinching. "Yeah buddy, I'm talking to you!!"
The boy took off as though the hounds of hell were after him, and Annora muttered an angry curse as she pulled a pair of white gloves out of her jacket pocket, yanked them on, and clapped her hands together before slamming them down onto the ground with all the force that she could muster. A flurry of electric-blue lightning crackled around her hands, and a thick wall of earth erupted from the street directly in front of the pickpocket, causing him to run right into it with a satisfyingly loud 'splat'. Annora deconstructed the wall before she calmly strolled over to the dazed boy and plucked her wallet out of his limp grasp before she put it back in her pocket.
"Don't ever do that again, at least not if you want to live" she warned as she turned around and headed back to where she had left Ed and Al, both of which were staring at her as though they had never seen her before. The older Elric finally regained the use of his voice after a few moments, and even then, it was shaky at best.
"How in the hell-?" Ed began hesitantly before he shook his head and tried again. "How the hell did you just do alchemy without a transmutation circle?"
Annora grinned impishly at him and held up her right hand palm out so that he could clearly see the transmutation circle drawn on the fabric of the white glove that she was currently wearing. Ed's jaw dropped, much to Annora's amusement, while Al just shook his head at his brother's tactlessness.
"Annora, when did you do that?" the fifteen-year old asked as he bent down to get a closer look at the transmutation circles. The girl grinned as she pulled off her gloves and handed them to Al.
"About a week ago," she explained while Al examined the gloves. "That whole mess with Scar, and that little incident with Barry the Chopper when I first came here got me thinking. I mean, I was incredibly lucky when I encountered Barry because I at least had the chance to use alchemy to defend myself. But with Scar, we were all too busy running for our lives to even think about using it. I noticed how Ed just has to clap his hands together to perform a transmutation, and that got me thinking; maybe if I had gloves or something like that with transmutation circles on them, I could just clap my hands together to do alchemy too."
Ed blinked a couple of times in surprise before he looked over at Annora, clearly impressed.
"Wow, I have to honestly say that I never expected you to think up something like that."
Annora smiled and shook her head as Al handed her gloves back to her before she put them back in her jacket pocket.
"I seem to do that a lot, huh?" she remarked as she raised an eyebrow pointedly. "Although, maybe your problem is the fact that you keep underestimating me."
For once, Ed didn't have anything to reply to that comment. Al chuckled as he mentally added another point to Annora's steadily increasing tally of the times that she had gotten the better of his brother. It was actually good for him, seeing as Al had noticed a difference in his older brother's attitude since Annora had come to stay with them. Maybe Ed would actually calm down a little. A loud angry shout broke through the younger boy's musings, and Al looked over at Ed to see him engaged in yet another argument with Annora. The fifteen-year old sweatdropped as he headed over to break up the fight. Them again, maybe he was wrong.
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Annora laced her fingers together behind her head and glanced over at Ed out of the corner of her eye. The teenage alchemist seemed to be lost in thought as the three of them strolled down the street towards the train station. The entire afternoon had been spent wandering throughout Rush Valley, looking at different goods offered in the small shops that lined the streets and visiting a small restaurant for lunch. Annora frowned as she looked closely at Ed and saw the slightly vacant look in his eyes, along with a large amount of worry.
"Hey Ed, are you okay?" she asked as she caught up to him. When the boy didn't answer, she reached out and waved a hand in front of his face.
"Hello, earth to Edward Elric."
When he didn't respond to her sarcastic statement, Annora reached out and swatted the boy forcefully upside the head. With a startled gasp, Ed was roughly jerked out of his thoughts and looked over at Annora, who was standing in front of him with her arms crossed.
"Hey, what was that for?!" he asked, only to have Annora raise an eyebrow in question.
"Okay, why do you keep spacing out like that?" she demanded. "You're really starting to freak me out here."
"It's none of your business," he grumbled, only to have Annora hit him again. "Hey, stop that!!"
The sixteen-year old scowled as she took a few steps forward and poked Ed in the chest angrily. "I will once you tell me what's wrong, idiot! I don't know when you're going to get this through your thick skull, but anything that's bothering you is going to affect me too, so I have a right to know!!"
Just as the argument was about to escalate further, the sounds of mocking laughter reached their ears, and the two teenagers turned around to see two boys and one girl standing around Al on the train platform. The older of the two boys grinned as he kicked Al in the shin, hard, resulting in a loud hollow echo.
"Eh, hear that? He's hollow!" the boy jeered. "Who went and taught this trash can how to walk?"
"Trash can?" Al asked in a quavering voice, clearly upset. Annora frowned as she started over towards the small group, only to find that Ed had already beaten her to it.
"What did you just call my little brother?" he snarled as he approached the boy who had kicked Al, his golden eyes shining with fury. The boy stared at Ed before he glanced back at Al, and then returned his attention to Ed as he gave an incredulous snort.
"He's your little brother? Pfft, yeah right. You're so short that you couldn't even hit me in the face if I didn't kneel."
All was silent for about two seconds before Ed went absolutely ballistic.
"WHO DID YOU SAY WAS SMALL LIKE A GRAIN OF RICE AND DOESN'T SHOW UP IN YOUR EYES?!" he raged as he grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt and drop-kicked him directly into a large puddle of foul-smelling mud that was right next to the train station. Annora and Al both flinched when Ed then used alchemy to transmute the muddy water into some kind of sludge that smelled like skunk stink. The remaining boy and girl looked at each other fearfully before they ran off as fast as they could, with their reeking friend not too far behind them. Annora watched the three disappear before she turned around to face Ed and Al.
"Well, that was interesting," she remarked before she started up the steps to get onto the train. Ed silently raised an eyebrow at the teenager's comment, but did nothing. He was too tired to come up with a smart-ass comeback, and all he really wanted to do was sleep. The alchemist had a distinct feeling that he would need every ounce of strength that he could get for tomorrow when he and Al faced their teacher.
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"Wow… so this is Dublith," Annora breathed in awe as she, Ed, and Al exited the train station. "It's beautiful. It almost looks like a part of historic Santa Fe."
The brothers didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. In fact, they looked almost like they were about to go to the gallows. The two boys had been withdrawn and morbid since they had left Rush Valley the afternoon before, and Annora had simply passed it off as them brooding over the whole 'trash can' incident on the platform. However, when Ed seemed incredibly reluctant to turn down a street that lead to a butcher shop, Annora guessed that something was seriously wrong.
"Alright you two, what's going on?" the sixteen-year old demanded as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You're acting almost as though we're going to a funeral, so what's wrong?"
There was dead silence for several moments before Al finally gave a roundabout answer to her question.
"Teacher's going to kill us," the fifteen-year old whimpered before he whirled around to face Ed. "Brother, I told you that we shouldn't have come back!! You remember what Teacher said to us last time!!"
"So? It's not like we're going to get any answers if we don't face our fears and ask her!" Ed shot back angrily. "Besides, do you honestly think that she would kill us?"
"Wait, run that one by me again?" Annora asked as she stared at the two brothers in obvious surprise. "Your teacher said what?"
"Does it really matter?!" Ed snapped, his eyes flashing. "We just need to go ask our old alchemy teacher something; that's it!!"
"Right, and pigs fly," Annora growled as she got directly in front of Ed and glared at him. "What the hell is going on? Tell me the truth; now."
"It's none of your damn business!!"
POW!
Ed stared up at Annora in shock from where he lay flat on his butt in the dust as the girl glowered at him, her chocolate eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Edward, you have exactly two seconds to tell me what the hell's going on before I smack your ass straight into the middle of next week!!" Annora snarled, fire practically shooting from her eyes as she stared intently at her friend. Ed let out a nervous gulp as he stared at the furious girl; at the moment, Annora held a distinct resemblance to Winry at her worst.
"Al, a little help here?" the alchemist asked, only to have his younger brother shake his head and scoot away fearfully. Annora arched an eyebrow as she sent a scathing look in Ed's direction, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Your two seconds are up. Any last words before I see you again next week?" she asked in a warning tone as she took a meaningful step forward. Ed swallowed nervously again and was about to answer when a loud voice suddenly sounded out from right behind Annora.
"HEY THERE EDWARD!!"
"Yahhh!!" Annora yelped as she jumped roughly a foot in the air before she whirled around to face the twenty-something man that had startled her. "Don't do that!"
Mason blinked in surprise before he looked around Annora at Ed.
"Who's this?" he asked, pointing at Annora. Ed opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off once again by Mason.
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"NO!!" they both yelped instantaneously as Ed shot to his feet and glared at the older man while Annora turned an interesting shad of red. Mason glanced from Ed to Al, and then over at Annora with raised eyebrows before he just shrugged.
"Are you guys here to see Izumi again?"
"Umm… yeah, we want to ask her something," Ed muttered, looking decidedly nervous. Mason grinned as he turned around and headed over in the direction of the butcher shop.
"That's great! I'll go tell Sig and Izumi that you're here!"
"Wait, Mason, don't-" Ed stammered, only to find that the man had already entered the butcher shop and was conversing animatedly with someone inside. The teenage alchemist stared in the direction of the door before he groaned and slapped his face with his left hand.
"Shit, we are so dead," he muttered morbidly. Annora stared at him like he had lost his marbles as she calmly crossed her arms over her chest.
"Geez, what's your problem?" she demanded. "If you acted like this towards your teacher, I wouldn't blame her for being less than thrilled to see you. Why don't you stop acting like such a negative jackass and go up and be polite for once?"
Ed blinked in surprise and stared at Annora before she grabbed him by the front of his red trench coat and dragged him up to the front door of the butcher shop.
"Wait, Annora, don't do this! You have no idea what you're doing!!" he yelped as he struggled to get away from the girl. Annora shot the alchemist a exasperated look as she shoved him up onto the front step.
"Actually, I do. I'm teaching you a lesson in manners," she retorted, just as Al grabbed her and pulled her off to the side of the house right next to the door. Ed looked over at his younger brother and was about to say something when the front door opened and an intimidating looking woman stepped out onto the front steps.
"Umm… hello, Teacher," Ed stammered nervously as he looked up at the woman. "It's nice to see you again."
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Umm... yeah, I know. Evil cliffie. but hey, at least that means that you will all want to read the next chapter, right?
Ed: You wish. Then why is it that I see about ten people over there firing up a calduron full of tar and armed with torches and pitchforks?
Wandering Hitokiri: (Looks over at angry mob) Shit. Wait a sec, how the hell did they find me anyway?! My location is unlisted!!
Ed: (Whistles innocently)
Wandering Hitokiri: (Glares at him) You, you're responsible for this?!
Ed: Maybe.
Wandering Hitokiri: Oh, I loath you. (Lawyer suddenly pops up)
Lawyer: You have to say it!! You have to say that you don't own Fullmetal Alchemist!
Wandering Hitokiri: What... what the hell? You again?! I killed you in the last chapter for God's sake!
Lawyer: Well... (Changes into Envy) Actually, you haven't killed me at all.
Wandering Hitokiri: (Pulls Mustang's gloves on from out of nowhere and incinerates Envy) Now I have.
Woohoo! 104 reviews for nine chapters! I am so psyched! Thank you all so very much to those who reviewed!! Oh, I need a vote as for what will happen later on in the story. For everyone who wants the episodes with Greed to be incorperated into chapter twelve, please tell me so!! Thank you!!