Hello all. Sorry for the long wait, was rather busy with summer work this week. Still not done, but I'll get there. Well, you don't want to here about that, you just want the next chapter, so I wont make you wait any longer.

Italics are Pride talking.

Bold is Selim thinking to Pride

Disclaimer- Don't own Full metal alchemist, deal with it.

Chapter 9

Selim Bradley sat on the train, staring out the window. Edward Elric was next to him, and Alphonse was sitting on the bench across from them. He didn't make eye contact with either of the two brother's though. If they found out that something was up with him, then he might not be able to find his chance to escape. He just stared out the window, playing the part of the child with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

"Pride?"Selim thought. He was getting more used to the idea of talking to Pride in his thoughts, but it was still hard to keep a straight face.

"Yes," Pride answered, a bored tone to his voice. Selim wasn't too sure what he wanted, he was just starting to get a little bored. Before he was able to say, well, think anything though, the younger of the two brothers interrupted him. "So, Selim, is this the first time you've been out of central?" Selim nodded, keeping his gaze out the window. He could hear Pride sigh, and he wondered if his act wasn't going very well. Pride had said he'd met the Elrics before, but Selim didn't know how the voice had acted around the two.

"Excited, innocent, starry-eyed, pretty much a Fullmetal fan boy, so your act isn't very accurate indeed," Selim nearly winced at Pride's words, but then he had to suppress the urge to smile. It was very hard imaging the arrogant and high-strung boy in his head acting that way. "I'm a good actor," Once again, the urge to smile hit him and he had to turn his head even more towards the window to hide it.

After a few hours the train pulled into a station. It was busy, much busier then the one in Resembool, although defiantly not up to par with the ones in Central. Ed stood up and started to stretch.

"Alright, we need to change trains here, but we gotta hurry, the next one leaves in about twenty minutes," Ed explained, grabbing a small suitcase. Selim nodded absently. This was his chance. He would disappear in the crowds, it would be simple enough.

Walking behind the two brothers Selim waited until they were in a large enough crowd that they wouldn't notice if he wasn't behind them right away. Slipping off the young boy went straight towards the exit, not looking back to see if the brothers had noticed his absents yet.

Once out of the train station Selim saw the town was just like it. No where near as big as Central, no where near as small as Resembool. Running off in a random direction, he didn't have any more to his plan then get away.

Leaning agents a brick wall and panting, he smiled. He had to be at least halfway across town by now, and there hadn't been one incident so far. "Heh heh, hey Pride, it actually worked," Selim laughed a bit. He hadn't thought that getting away from the Full Metal Alchemist and his brother was going to be so easy, but then again he hadn't thought getting away from the strange people was going to work out either.

"What do you know, it did,"Pride's voice echoed in his head. He was sounding less annoyed and a little bit more amused. Selim didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing though. If he was amused did that mean he didn't think his plan would work in the end? "Oh, it definitely wont work in the end, I'm just waiting for you to get caught for good now," Pride answered, sounding even more amused then before. Selim decided to just ignore him and focus on what to do next.

Walking along the streets at a more natural pace, the black haired boy tried to gather himself. He should probably leave town, although not on a train this time. If he went back to the train station, he's probably get caught. Nodding to himself, he would just walk until he had left this town behind and was in another. Once there he would slip onto another train, and then go from there. It was simple, but so far, simple worked.

Keeping towards the back lots and shadows, Selim tried to stay out of sight. He knew Edward and Alphonse would notice he was gone, and they'd search the entire town for him. They would probably go to the police too. Now that he'd slowed down enough to actually take in his surrounding, he'd realized this wasn't the nicest town in the world. Sure, he was sticking towards the edges of the poorer parts on purpose, but that didn't change the fact that their was a lot of them.

It was probably around three o'clock when Selim realized how hungry he was. He hadn't eaten a proper meal since he'd left the Rockbell's house. Ed and Al had seemed to be in a hurry to get him home, and they hadn't eaten on the train.

Feeling the inside of his pockets he sighed, of course no money would of magically appeared, but it was worth a try. "Pride, I'm hungry," Selim mumbled.

"I'm a three hundred year old super being forced to be nothing more then a voice inside of some annoying child's head, what exactly do you want me to do about getting you food?" Pride growled. Selim would of felt a little hurt about being yelled at like that, if it wasn't for what Pride had said.

"A three hundred year old super being?" The child asked. That was the first he'd ever heard of that. What were these strange people?

"Yes, but I'm not telling you anything else," Selim sighed and nodded. Hopefully Pride would tell him eventually. Placing a hand on his stomach, Selim sighed again. Super being's body or not, he was still hungry. "Just steal some food if it bothers you that much," Pride finally suggested.

Steal some food. Selim had never done anything like that before, he'd never had to. Not to mention stealing was wrong. Stomach rumbling again, Selim decided their were much worse things then taking a few oranges or something from a stand full of them. If he did it right, no one would probably even notice.

Wondering around a bit, Selim was glad to actually find a crowded outside market. Peaking out from behind a corner, he noticed a cart filled with an assortment of fruits run by an old man. Looking around the plaza, that looked like the easiest one to plunder. Staring at the cart, Selim tried to think up a plan.

The black haired boy nearly jumped a foot into the air when two kids slammed into the cart he'd been eyeing. He couldn't hear them, but from the looks of it they were apologizing while picking up the fruit that spilled. Selim's eyes went wide when he saw the kids slipping some of the fruit. Thieves! Now he couldn't take from the old man. Selim wasn't about to make someone get robbed twice in one day. Watching the two kids run off, Selim made a split second decision to follow them. Better to steal from thieves then from the innocent, right?

"You are such a child," Pride grumbled, and Selim could almost see him rolling his eyes. The black haired boy stuck out his tongue and giggled quietly.

"But aren't you a child, too Pride?" Selim asked in his head. He didn't want the children to notice he was following them.

"No. I already told you, I'm three hundred years old," The voice echoed in his head, and Selim laughed quietly to himself again.

The children turned into an alleyway, and Selim slowed to a walk as he went in. They had to be getting close to where ever they were heading, right? The streets were turning into a maze, and Selim was barely able to tell which way the two were going, catching glimpses of them speeding around corners and such.

Finally he saw them sneak into an old, abandoned looking building. It might have been an apartment complex at one time, Selim wasn't sure. He waited a few minutes before walking up towards the run down building. Stepping onto an old crate sitting lazily next to the brick wall, he peaked inside one of the dirty windows.

There looked to be four kids inside, including the ones he had followed. Scanning the room, Selim saw it, a long box with food on top. Surely there was a way to get to it without the kids noticing. Selim felt a little bad about stealing from kids, most of them around his age, but they could always just steal more. They seemed to be good at it, and Selim wasn't.

Jumping down from the crate, the black haired boy wiped his hands together. "Okay, just have to sneak in, grab some food, and sneak out, that doesn't sound too hard. What do you think, Pride?" Selim asked.

"Oh, I think that's a great idea," Selim froze and gulped. The voice did not echo around his head like he was used to.

"Turn around stupid," Pride ordered. Nodding just slightly, Selim turned around. Standing in front of him was another kid, although he was at least four years older then Selim himself, and from the looks of it much stronger. The dirty teen was smirking at him, his arms folded over his chest. Taking a step back, Selim tripped over the old crate.

"So, how do you plan on sneaking in, huh?" The teen asked. Selim didn't answer, only backing up more, until his back was agents the old brick wall.

"Pride?" Selim asked inside his head, wishing he had done that beforehand.

"Yes," The voice named for a sin answered, sounding more annoyed then anything, and certainly not scared. That helped Selim a little bit, but not much.

"I'm not hungry anymore," Selim could almost feel Pride slap his hand to hit forehead in frustration.

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Hurry, finally done. Once again, sorry for the long wait. I hope the next chapter will come quicker, but it will probably be another week for that one too. Sometimes I hate having a life. Well, tootles, and please review.