Chapter Twelve: Jewelry and Shrimps

"Last call for Risembool!" the conductor yelled as we neared the train. "Alllllllllll aboard!"

"Crap!" Ed yelled, running as fast as possible to make it before the train left us. Al and I sped up too, and the three of us barely made it on before the man shut the doors.

"Whew!" I exhaled as I flopped down into the seat beside Ed. "That was almost faster than I ran when I was trying to get away from you!"

Al clutched his side. "I almost miss my old body," he joked. Ed smirked, and I stared blankly.

"Old body?" I asked.

Ed and Al both stared at me. "Oh yeah," Ed said, almost nonchalantly. "You didn't know him back then."

"Back when?"

"Some other time." Ed waved a hand, signaling the end of the conversation.

I shut my mouth, but my eyes narrowed almost of their own accord. I would find out what they were talking about. It was not in my nature to let things go so easily.

Then I realized my eyes weren't narrowed. They were half-shut. I was tired. Good. That meant that my plan had worked. Except…

I moaned. "Damn it."

"What?" Ed asked.

"I stayed up all night last night so I could sleep on the train, but I completely forgot that I wouldn't have any room to sleep." I rubbed my eyes. I'd just stay awake, then.

Ed sighed. "I'll move over to Al's seat, I guess. You can stay here. You should have enough room to lie down if I move." He got up and crossed over to Al's side, and I nodded thankfully, resting my head on the arm of the seat. It was comfortable enough. I was a small person, too, so I fit just fine. Except I was cold.

My eyes widened. My coat! I'd left it at the train station!

"I...can we go shopping real quick when we get off?" I croaked. "I left my jacket at the train station."

Al gave me a once-over, seeming to realize that I must be cold with my lack of sleeves, bare legs, and large neckline, and turned to Ed. "We can't go back, can we, Brother?"

"No," Ed shook his head. "We have to wait until we get to Resembool. I hate to put off the job even more, but she needs a coat, so I guess we'll take a few more minutes out of our time." He looked me in the eyes then, something strange gleaming in them. I shut mine, kind of afraid to ponder upon that look, and managed to mutter "Thanks" before I fell asleep.

"Lucy." I felt something shaking me. "Lucy, get up." Ed.

I mumbled something and swatted away the hand.

"Lucy, the train stopped. We're in Risembool."

"Go 'way," I huffed, turning the other way. Then I felt something different on my arms.

"Huh…?" I opened my eyes a crack to see my body covered in red. At first, I thought it was blood. Then I realized it was Ed's coat.

I sat up groggily, holding the coat closed at my throat. "I don't wanna get up," I said, stubborn old me.

Ed sighed. "The train is about to leave again. If you don't—"

"I got her," Al volunteered, bending down in front of me. He pulled my arms around his neck and hooked his hands under my knees, then stood up. I managed to stay on, and he turned back to smile at me. "You look really tired."

"Shaddup," I muttered, now awake enough to be my normal self.

I felt Al's shoulders shake a little bit with laughter. "Yes, ma'am," he chuckled.

"Hurry up or I'll leave without ya!" Ed yelled, and Al hurried to catch up with him.

As soon as we stepped off the train, I spotted a store. "There's one," I muttered, pointing to the clothing shop.

"I see it," Ed said. "We should hurry up and get you that jacket so I can have my coat back."

I chuckled a little. "Yeah. Not because I'm cold or anything, just so you can have your cloak."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Let's just go in."

Al carried me around to look at the stuff for a few minutes. When I was awake enough, I told him to let me down. "Man, it takes you forever to wake up," he grunted, setting me down on the ground.

"Well, I would have gotten a drug test or something if I started trying to walk right after I woke up," I shot back, going through the racks. Sure, I'd only asked for a jacket, but…maybe I needed a bit more. Some of the stuff they had there wasn't totally hideous.

Making sure to hide what I was wearing underneath Ed's coat, I found an exact replica of my jacket hanging on a rack outside the dressing room. Right next to it were a few items that caught my eye. I grabbed the jacket, making sure they were hidden beneath it, and ran into the dressing room.

Inside the room, I looked around to make sure nobody else was there and then quickly stuffed the other items into a pocket; a handful of silver earrings, a couple of bracelets, and a thick black leather choker. I removed the price tags, then put on the jacket, making sure to keep the price tag showing. I zipped it up, then walked out of the room.

"I want this jacket," I told the clerk, holding out my arm. "I want to wear it out 'cuz I'm cold, so just scan my arm and I'll be good to go." The woman gave me a look, but decided not to mess with me and just scanned the tag while I wore the jacket. She nodded and I smiled at her, then walked out of the store, handing Ed his own cloak as we exited.

When we were a mile or so away from the store, I looked around for cops, then unzipped my jacket, revealing the choker, and shook the bracelets out from their hiding place inside the sleeves.

Ed and Al gaped at me. "You weren't wearing all that earlier!" Ed gasped.

"I know," I giggled. "You remember that I told you I like to steal stuff? Well, I also didn't like walking around without much ewelry on. It made me feel too…simple. So I jacked these bracelets and stuff from that store back there. I also stole these." I held out my hand to show them a few sets of earrings.

"Besides," I shrugged, "that store wasn't cheap. It would have cost less to take a train back and get my old jacket then take another train here again than it would to pay for all this stuff." I inspected the silver charm bracelet on my right wrist. It only had one different charm, a music note, but it had quite a few of them. I took an immediate liking to it and began to check out the twisted-together one and black leather studded one on my left wrist.

"But we've got plenty of money," Al protested. "Why?"

"Stealing's just a habit of mine. I've been doing it since I was eleven." Then I glanced at them. "I'll tell you that story when you explain to me what you meant about your bodies." Then I yawned, still tired. "Can we hurry up and find these guys? I wanna take a nap."

Ed and Al stared at each other. They tended to do that a lot around me. "Uh, sure?" Ed said almost uncertainly. I knew I had just made him extremely curious about my past.

I thought over what he knew about me. They knew I didn't have parents. They knew the military wanted me to join them. They knew I'd been stealing things since I was eleven. They knew I was obviously not a great fan of Mustang. And they probably knew from my little talk with Mustang that my parents had been State Alchemists, and maybe even that I could use lightning from the name Mustang called me. There wasn't that much left to tell, but there was enough missing to torment them.

And I knew even less about them. So they were State Alchemists. They didn't like Mustang, either—or at least Edward didn't. They kept saying something about their 'old bodies' or something. And they seemed to really know how to take care of someone, even though we'd never met before. I was sure that they couldn't be more curious about me than I was about them. There was definitely enough missing to torment me.

"Hey, Lucy!" Ed yelled. I started and realized that they had already started walking off.

"Sorry!" I called, running toward them. "I was caught up in my thoughts."

"Well, stop thinking so much," Ed snapped. "We're never gonna find these jerks if you keep spacing out, and I'm not carrying you again."

"I don't want either of you to carry me," I retorted. "And anywho, I'm perfectly awake now. So we can get going."

"Finally."

I smacked him upside the head. "Shut up, you undergrown jerk!"

"Undergrown? Why, you—" He shoved me, screaming a stream of words that sounded something like "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT IT WOULD TAKE HIM AN HOUR TO GET TO THE BATHROOM AND BY THE TIME HE'S THERE HE DOESN'T HAVE TO GO ANYMORE AND BY THE TIME HE GETS BACK ACROSS THE ROOM HE HAS TO GO AGAIN AND IT KEEPS REPEATING ITSELF?"

"You're the main ingredient in a shrimp cocktail!" I shot back. Okay, maybe our little talk about 'destiny' the other day had come too soon….

"DON'T CALL ME SMALL! I'LL BREAK DOWN YOUR FEET AND STICK THEM ON YOUR HEAD!" He obviously hadn't yet realized that I was even shorter than he was.

"Brother!" Al grabbed Ed's arms from behind. "Stop it! And Lucy, please don't antagonize him. He's obviously sensitive about his size."

"I'M NOT A SHRIMP!" Ed roared, this time directing the comment toward Al.

"Wow." I stared at Ed mockingly. "You're shorter than your temper."

"If you call me short one more time, I swear I will hit you on the head so hard you'll be my size!"

Yep. Our talk was definitely way too early.