Cayden walked beside Al, at least twelve boxes of Pocky in her arms and six more in Al's. She struggled to open one of the boxes without dropping the others. Al opened one of the boxes he was holding and traded the one for all that were in her arms.
"Why do you need so many of these?" He asked, glancing down at her.
"There's good! When you get your body back I'm gonna shove a whole box of them down your throat." She gave him a wicked grin as she stuck a biscuit stick in her mouth.
"If I even have one…" He whispered to himself, looking away.
"Hmm?" She gave him a quizzical glance.
"Nothing." He shook his head, pushing open the door to Ed's hospital room.
Winry was nowhere to be found but Ed was stretching his arm out and doing different things to test it. Ed turned to them as Al set all the boxes of Pocky on the couch, Cayden plopping down next to them.
"Where's Winry?" Cayden asked, tilting her head a little.
Ed's eyes widen and his mouth dropped open, "How many of those did you get?!"
"A couple. Now are you gonna answer my question?" Cayden closed her eyes, enjoying the tasty biscuits.
"A couple?! How much did you spend?!" Ed shouted, pointing at the pile.
"About 500 cens…what some?" Cayden opened her eyes, raising an eyebrow, somewhat annoyed that Ed was answering her question so she dropped it.
"You spent that much on chocolate biscuits?! Are you crazy?!" Ed shouted, stomping his foot.
"So that's a no?" Cayden questioned, pulling another out of the box and pointing it in his direction before sticking it in her mouth.
"May as well, when I get out of this prison we won't have anywhere to put them…" Ed sighed, putting a hand on his forehead.
"No! You don't get any!" Cayden shouted, covering up the boxes with her body.
"We'll see about that!" Ed laughed, cupping her chin and biting off the end of the biscuit that was hanging out of her mouth.
"Hey! I was eating that!" Cayden growled, a little annoyed.
"Want it back?" Ed teased, pushing part of it out of his mouth.
"No." Cayden gave him a pout as she crossed her arms.
The door opened and Cayden threw her hood over her head. The nurse set a tray down by Ed's bed and nodded to him as she walked out without a word.
"Guess it's time to eat…" Ed sighed as he walked over and sat down, picking up the fork and poking at the food. He looked over his shoulder at Cayden, "Hey, do you want this?"
"No way in hell am I eating that. I don't like hospital food. I'm gonna go get a cheeseburger or something." Cayden smirked at him as she got up and walked to the door.
"No fair!" Ed pouted, anime tears flowing down his cheeks.
Cayden stuck out her tongue and walked out, walking straight into Major Armstrong.
"Major! What are you doing here?" Cayden asked, backing up against the wall.
She glanced over at Ed and Al, who were watching her through the window. Ed had the fork hanging out of his mouth, eyebrows raised in confusion.
"I was just coming to see the Elric brothers, but I would like to ask where are you going?" His mustache moved as he talked, a few sparkles appearing.
"Going to get some food." Cayden gave him a weak nervous smile.
"Why don't I come with you? My treat." He said, grabbing her wrist.
Cayden looked at Ed, eyes wide as she mouthed 'Help me'. Ed just shrugged and continued eating, smirking at her. Cayden glared at him but let out a gasp as Major Armstrong threw her over his shoulder, carrying her down the hallway.
xXxXx
Major Armstrong had left Cayden at the front doors of the hospital, a hamburger in her hands. She pushed the door opened and took a bite of the hamburger as she walked towards the hospital room Ed was in. She opened the door to his room, taking another bite of her hamburger. She met Ed's eyes and glared at him for not stopping Major Armstrong earlier. Cayden waved the burger around in his face before sitting down and sticking out her tongue.
"Meanie." Ed pouted at her playfully before sticking out his tongue in return.
Cayden laughed and crawling over the pile of Pocky boxes over to Al, who was sitting on the floor across from the bed. She tapped on his head, causing him to slowly glance up at her.
"Al, what's wrong?" She laid her chest on the arm of the couch, arms hanging over, butt raised in the air.
Al shook his head, saying nothing.
"Alphonse…I know something's wrong. You can tell me." Cayden said with a smile, placing a hand on his head.
He just looked away, shaking his head again.
"You again?! Evil bastard…" Ed growled causing Cayden and Al to look in his direction.
Cayden covered up her eyes with a huff, "Really Ed? It's just milk…"
"I'm not gonna drink it! It's gross!" He huffed, crossing his arms, "You drink it!"
"Nope. You need it more than I do, shorty." Cayden laughed, remembering her burger and finishing it off.
"Brother…just drink it…you need to take care of your body." Al mumbled, staring at the ground.
"I don't like it! It's not like I'm gonna die if I never drink that stuff!" Ed said, sticking a forkful of whatever the hospital had given him to eat into his mouth.
"Yes, but you'll stay small forever." Cayden smirked, walking over to him and patting his head.
"I'm growing! It may not look like it, but I'm still growing!" Ed grumbled then looked at Al, "You're lucky Al, you don't get called small because you're so big!"
"I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS BODY!" Al yelled at him, startling them and the confused Winry who had just walked in.
Ed stared at the tray of food in front of him, eyes widening. Cayden put a hand on Ed's shoulder, sitting next to him, face showing none emotions she was now bottling up inside.
Ed slowly looked up at Al, pained look on his face, "I'm sorry Al…you're right…this is my fault. That's why we need to get your body back as soon as possible."
"Is it even possible to get our bodies back?!" Al shouted, causing Cayden to jump up and put herself between them.
"We are trying everything we can, Al. You just have to believe us. We will get you back to normal, no matter what happens." Cayden looked up at him, tears erupting from her eyes.
"Believe you?! What exactly am I supposed to believe?! I'm a soul inside an empty suit of armor!" He yelled at Cayden, "According to Alchemic Theory, human are composed of a physical body, mind, and soul! Memories are nothing but data, it should be possible to recreate them!"
"What are you saying?" Edward looked at his brother, horrified.
"You said there was something you wanted to tell me…but you were too afraid. Is it possible that you wanted to tell me that my soul and memories are fake?! That they were created?!" Al yelled at him again, "Well?! Can you prove that a boy named Alphonse Elric even existed?! Is it possible that everyone is lying to me?!"
Ed slammed his fists on the table, startling Cayden, "So…that's what you kept bottled up…I see…"
Ed slipped on his slippers and walked past his brother out of the room. Winry turned shouting after him. Winry turned, pulling a wrench out of nowhere and hitting Al in the head, startling Colonel Hughes and Lieutenants Ross and Brosh (is that how his name is spelt?).
"You idiot!" Winry yelled, hitting him again, knocking him down.
Cayden stood, fists clenched as she stared at the ground.
"You're so stupid! You have no idea how he feels! The thing he wanted to talk to you about was if you blame him for what happened to you guys!" She slumped to the ground, still hitting him with the wrench, "And then you said that…what moron would risk his life you create a fake little brother? The only thing you guys have left is each other…"
Cayden walked over to the couch, opening the backpack they lay on the ground beside it, pulling out a picture and the little stuffed bear with pink bow from all those years ago. She walked back over to Alphonse, legs weak, falling down beside him.
"R-remember this?" She held the bear out to him, wiping away her tears with her opposite hand.
Then she handed them the picture of her, Winry, Ed, and Al in a watermelon eating contest. She smiled as she remembered it. Cayden stood up, taking the bear from him.
"Now I'm going to talk to your brother." Cayden sighed then looked to Winry, "Keep knocking some sense into him."
Cayden clutched the bear close to her chest as she left the room and walked up the stairs onto the roof. She walked up behind Ed, quietly so he didn't hear her. She hugged him from behind, head resting on his shoulder. She handed him the bear and heard him give a small chuckle.
"Ed?" Cayden and Edward turned around, facing Alphonse.
Ed charged at his brother, aiming a kick for his head. Al dodged it as Ed tried to punch him.
"W-what are you doing, brother?" Al asked, startled.
Ed grabbed a bed sheet off the clothes line and threw it in his face, blocking his face before kicking him in the head and causing him to fall backwards.
"I win!" He said, plopping down across from Al, "That's the first time I ever beat you, huh?"
"…you cheated…" Al mumbled, pulling the sheet from his face.
"Shut up. A win is a win!" Ed huffed, kicking his feet up and down.
Cayden leaned against the railing, shaking her head.
"We got in a lot of fights when we were little." Ed chuckled, closing his eyes.
"Yup. And it was always about something stupid." Al laughed, smiling if he could.
"Yeah, like who got top bunk or fighting toys and candy… I never won any of those…" Ed sighed.
"You also fought about who would marry Winry." Cayden laughed, sitting down next to them.
"What?! I don't remember that at all!" Ed shouted, glancing over to her.
"It did happen, brother, I won that one, but she turned us both down." Al chuckled, looking towards Cayden, "Didn't we ask you too?"
Cayden nodded.
"Didn't you turn us down also?" Al asked.
"Actually no…" Cayden's face flushed bright red.
Ed let out a quiet gasp, eyes widening as he turned to look at her, "What did you say?"
"You don't remember that either?" Al questioned, looking over at him.
"No, for some reason I can't remember either of those times." He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment.
"It was the same day." Cayden grumbled, "I literally walked in on it and Al asked me about the same time you asked Winry."
"And what'd you say?" Ed asked, eyebrows arching.
"I said yes…then Winry talked me out of it. Poor little Al was crushed." Cayden giggled, patting Al's head.
"Crushed? I was devastated!" Al laughed.
"So you think those memories are fake?" Ed questioned, staring up at the sky.
"…I'm sorry…" Al muttered.
"Al, next time something is wrong, tell us." Cayden smiled at him.
"Okay." He said cheerfully.
"We are going to do everything we can to get our bodies back." Ed said with a determined look in his eyes.
"Does that mean you're gonna drink milk?" Cayden teased, laughing.
"…if that's what it takes…I'll try…" He grumbled, rolling his eyes.
Cayden laughed, standing up and stretching before holding out her hands to Ed and Al.
xXxXx
(A/N: I'm gonna skip the part with King Bradley and go straight to the Rush Valley part)
Cayden sat as best she could next to Al on the train. She eventually ended up in his lap since she couldn't fit in the seat.
"So what made you guys go see your teacher all of the sudden?" Winry asked, catching Cayden's attention.
"Yeah, why are we going?" Cayden asked, eyebrows rising in question, shuddering when she remembered what they went through the first month in training.
"Two reasons. One, to get stronger. We've been losing a lot of fights and maybe a trip to see her would help that." Ed replied, leaning against the window.
"You're going to get better at fighting? Are you obsessed with it?!" Winry asked, panicked.
"My reasons aren't that simple! I don't know how I can explain it but we need to get stronger on the inside too." Ed said, looking over to Cayden and Al, eyes widening a little when he realized Cayden had made her way into Al's lap and he clenched his teeth together in jealously a little.
Cayden noticed his jaw tighten and gave him a quizzical look that he quickly brushed off, looking away.
"And the other reason?" Winry asked with a huff.
"I want to ask her about transmuting humans…the whole time we were there she never told us anything about the philosopher's stone or human transmutation. The closer we get to finding it some comes up and makes it harder so maybe we can just ask her. We have to ask, even if it means we might get killed." Ed clenched his teeth together, "…get killed…we had short lives didn't we Al…?"
"I wish I could have had a girlfriend before I die…" Al said, trembling.
"We're so screwed…" Cayden said, staring into space, rocking back and forth.
"Well here's something that will cheer you guys up." Winry said as she took out an apple pie.
"Where'd you get that?" Ed asked, leaning forward, eyeing the pie.
"Mr. Hughes's wife gave to me so we could eat it on the train." Winry smiled.
"It's huge…" Cayden said, staring at it.
"Yeah." Winry laughed, handing Cayden and Ed a piece.
Cayden took a bite, savoring the sweet cinnamon and mushy apples. A piece of the crust crumbled off into her lap, making Al laugh as she searched for it.
"This is good." Ed said, glancing at Winry with a smile, "His wife really knows how to cook."
"Yup. She taught me the recipe so I'll make it for you when you get your body back, Al." Winry smiled.
"Yay!" Al cheered, throwing his arms in the air, knocking Cayden out of his lap, "Umm…oops…"
Cayden glared at Al, crossing her arms over her chest. Ed laughed and Cayden punched him in the leg before standing up and jumping up on the seat grabbing Al's head.
"Hey! Gimme back my head!" He shouted, reaching for it.
"No! You made me fall on my butt!" Cayden argued, tapping on his head.
"Umm…Cayden, you might want to give him his head back, people are taking notice…" Ed chuckled as he looked around.
"Fine…but knock me down again and I won't be giving it back!" Cayden huffed, sitting down on Al's knee.
"Understood." Al said, eyeing her closely.
"Anyway, I met Mrs. Hughes and their daughter Elicia. They're so nice." Winry piped up, smiling.
"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, nice? More like smothery. I never asked him to follow me around all the time." Ed grumbled.
"He's not smothery…well, a little, but he always came to your hospital room to just to talk, no matter how much work he had. He's really nice to us." Cayden smiled, sliding from Al's knee into his lap, "Next time you go over, Winry, I wanna come with you."
"Yeah, we need to do something nice for him when we come back." Ed smiled as he looked out the window.
xXxXx
Cayden sat on Al's shoulders, hands on his head as she watched Winry run from shop to shop, looking at all of the auto-mail accessories and parts. She sighed and hit her head on the back of Al's head then shot up, rubbing her forehead.
"Ow…" She muttered, looking around.
"Be careful, I'm metal, remember?" Al chuckled, looking up at her.
"Don't remind me…" Cayden grumbled, spotting a large crowd, "Hey, what's that?"
"I don't know, let's go check it out." Ed smiled up at her then called to Winry, "Winry, come on, you can look at that stuff later!"
"Aww man! You should have seen the newest model from Gods Studio!" She complained as she walked back to them.
They all walked over to the crowd and made their way through to the front. Cayden grunted as she saw the ugly macho man freak with two auto-mail arms, sitting at the table next to some scrawny twig with a floral patterned shirt.
"Oh what the hell is this shit? Who are these clowns…?" Cayden sighed, leaning against Al's head.
"Are you guys ready for some Machine Arm Wrestling?!" Mr. Twig guy asked the crowd, "Attention all Auto-Mail users! Are you looking to win some serious fast cash?! A mere 10,000 cens to enter and if you can beat the reigning champ, you will walk away with the mountain of money!"
"Alright! Let me at 'im!" Some black haired guy pushed his way past Edward, walking over to the table, "Just got a new model today. And I've been dying to test it!"
Cayden reached into her backpack that was slung over her shoulder and pulled out one of boxes of Pocky she was allowed to take with her. Ed refused to let her take more than seven boxes and made her leave the rest at the hotel. She stuck a biscuit in her mouth and watched the match, slowly nibbling away at the treat.
"Contestants, are you ready?!" Mr. Floral Twig guy asked, placing his hand on top of Macho man and the black haired guy's hands, "FIGHT!"
Macho man instantly took the black haired man down, slamming his arm on the table, causing it to break. Cayden let out a gasp and the biscuit fell out of her mouth and into Al's armor. Cayden grabbed Al's head and dropped it on Ed's causing Ed to look up, startled until he realized Cayden was waist down in Al's armor.
"Cayden! Don't do that it's weird!" Al shouted, trying to pull her out.
"Cayden, get out of Al!" Ed shouted at her, holding up Al's head by the hair.
"Almost got it! Just a little more!" Cayden said, reaching down for the treat, "Al, stop trying to pull me out! I can't even touch the blood rune from here so don't worry about it!"
"That's not what I'm worried about! I can't feel you inside me but it's still weird!" Al complained.
Cayden grabbed hold on the Pocky stick and slowly lifted herself up out of Al's armor, sticking the biscuit back in her mouth she shouted, "Yay!"
Then she met Ed's eyes, "What?"
"You did that for a Pocky stick?!" He asked, staring at her in disbelief.
"Well, duh! What else would I do it for?" Cayden asked, eyebrow rising, "These things are good!"
Ed stayed silent and turned back to the fight, staring at the black haired guy get overwhelmed with engineers.
Twig guy turned and faced the crowd, "So, who's up next?" He spotted Al, "What about you? Guy with the pretty little girl on his shoulders! What about it? Care to try?!"
"Me?! No, no thank you!" Al said, putting up his hand, defensively.
"Well then, what about this young man with the auto-mail arm?" He asked, a hand on his chin, "Wait, my bad! What am I thinking? A little boy like you can't possibly offer any competition! Anyone else wanna try?"
Ed was close to snapping and quickly walked over to the table, slamming his hands on it.
"Oh? Half-pint is serious? This should be interesting…" Twig man said, shocked.
"Ed! You can't do this! You don't stand a chance!" Winry shouted to him and it only seemed to make him angrier.
Cayden sighed, resting her arms and head on Al's head, "What the hell does he think he's doing…?"
"What a joke! There's too much a difference in power!" Some guy with a bandana wrapped around his head was laughing.
"That kid's gonna get his entire shoulder ripped off! I can't wait to see this!" Some with his hair tied back laughed with the bandana guy.
Cayden glared at them and threw her empty Pocky box at them. Ed grabbed hold of Macho man's hand as twig guy announced the match to begin. Ed slammed macho man's arm on the table, shattering it. Everyone in the crowds eyes widened except Cayden's and Al's of course.
"W-what?" Macho man questioned, staring at the remains of his auto-mail.
"Sorry about that. Looks like the scrap collector is gonna be real busy today." Ed smirked, holding up the broken arm.
Cayden sighed, shaking her head as Winry asked, "How'd he do that?"
"He used Alchemy to change that guy's arm into a weaker substance." Al whispered into Winry's ear.
"That's cheating!" Winry said, disapproval in her voice.
Ed opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by some guy walking up to him and saying, "I've ever seen that type of auto-mail around here!"
He picked up Ed's arm and started pointing at different parts, "Look at the intricacy of the metalwork!"
"I made it!" Winry bragged to the engineers.
"What? You're the designer? Great work!" one of them said turning to her.
"Well this took a turn for the worst…" Cayden muttered, looking around, spotting something moving in a nearby alleyway, "Hey, Al, let me down."
"What? You might get lost in the crowd." Al said, trying to reason a little.
"If shrimpy doesn't get lost, I won't I'm taller than he is anyway." Cayden laughed, jumping off Al's back, "I'll be back."
Cayden made her way through the crowd surrounding them and ran over to the alleyway. She placed her hand against the wall and looked around, spotting a little chocolate colored dog with a broken auto-mail hind-leg.
"Oh, you poor thing…" She whispered as kneel down, holding her hand out to it.
The little puppy limped over to her and she picked it up, scratching it behind the ear. She held the puppy up and looked at its auto-mail leg. The wires that connected the nerves were still intact, only the metal was broken.
"Here, I'll fix it." She smiled at the puppy as it looked at her with wide eyes.
Cayden placed the puppy down and clapped her hands, placing them on the puppy's leg, blue flashes of light coming from her hands.
"There." She patted the puppy on the head as it looked at it leg and moved it around.
The puppy backed away and started running in a circle, barking happily. Cayden laughed and stood up, turning she looked for Al, Ed, and Winry. The little puppy barked causing her to turn around and kneel back down.
"Do you not have an owner?" Cayden asked even though she knew the puppy couldn't answer.
She lifted up the puppy and noticed the auto-mail leg was shorter than the other.
"I'll take you to Winry, she'll get you a new leg." Cayden smiled, standing up, puppy in her arms.
Cayden walked back to Al, freezing when she saw that the engineers had removed Ed's clothes to see his auto-mail better. Cayden couldn't stop herself and she busted out laughing, causing Ed to blush.
"Everyone here really does like auto-mail." Winry laughed, hands on her hips.
"That's not an excuse to strip me to my underwear in public!" Ed yelled at her, causing Cayden to laugh again.
(A/N: I'll continue the rest of this in the next chapter. If any of you have ideas on how to make it work for Al, let me know because I got nothing but this doesn't mean that Al confesses or Cayden falls for Al. Thanks for reading ^-^)