Good day, my dear readers. A half-serious chapter this time, a little serious, a little not serious. Great.

Let's get on with it, shall we?

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, its plot or any of its characters. I only own a space on this website where I can let my fantasy flow freely.

Chapter twenty-nine: A Man Possessed

"Mental note: never ever do that again."

Patricia, Edward and Alphonse sat in a coupé, panting. Well, at least two out of three were panting, the third one just sat there happy as ever.

"If you ever get that idea again I swear I'll kill you." Edward glared at Patricia.

"What? It seemed great at the moment!" Patricia tried to defend her bad idea.

"Didn't you just mentally note yourself to never ever do it again?"

"…Yes, but that doesn't mean that the idea wasn't good!"

"…No comments."

The run had gone badly. It started out alright, but in the end it just went fucked up beyond all recognition. Patricia fell and hurt her right knee, it bled and looked really nasty, until they realized that they almost was late to the train. A band aid was quickly on its place and the run continued. When they got to the station there had been absolutely no time for a call to the commanding officer, because the train had started to move out from the station already so they had to run to catch up with it too. They had jumped onto the rear car and walked through every car imaginable before they found a seat.

Patricia yawned. First a bad night's sleep, then an automail reattachment, then a devil's run. It was seriously more than enough for one girl to handle in one day.

"Are you gonna sleep?" Edward asked her.

"Yes, so do not disturb me, 'cause if you do, I'll transmute you into something horrible, and I think you know how that'll turn out," Patricia said before half-lying down against the train wall and shutting her eyes.

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"Patricia?"

What the heck…? Hadn't she told him to not disturb her, and what was the very first thing he did?

"Patricia, we're in Rush Valley now. We need to get off."

"What the hell?"

"We're in Rush Valley."

"Aw," Patricia groaned and sat up. She had slid down during the trip, so she was lying down on the seat, and Edward and Alphonse shared one of the narrow seats, everything so she could sleep.

That's what makes her love them so much.

And such a careful wakeup…! If it had been just three months ago, Edward would've just thrown her off of the seat, if he'd let her sleep at all.

She smiled and the three of them went out of the train and onto the station.

"When… but Rush Valley?" she realized. "Weren't we going to Central?"

"Yes, but this train turn around here, and continue to Dublith. We have to catch another train to get to Central," Edward explained.

"Ah. I get it."

Rush Valley… Then they could go to dinner at Loraine's.

"Boys?" she asked. "D'you wanna eat at a friend of mine's?"

"Does this friend make good food?" Edward countered.

"Yes." Patricia chuckled.

'You would've eaten anyways,' she thought.

"Then YES! Of course! Who is it?"

"It's Loraine Lewis."

"The military-hating woman?" Alphonse asked.

"...Yes." Patricia said. Hm. That's not good, now, is it?

"Then how am I gonna eat there? I mean, I'm military! State alchemist, remember?" Edward pointed to himself.

"Of course I remember you're a state alchemist. How am I ever gonna forget? I mean, it's 'Fullmetal alchemist' here and 'Major Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist' there, and…" Patricia looked up at the ceiling. "I dunno."

"What…?"

"First, how are Alphonse gonna eat? I mean, I can't bring a non-eater to Loraine's table, even if you're not military, Alphonse. And Edward, I don't know how we're gonna do this since you're… well state property."

"I'm no one's property!" Edward yelled.

"Well, I hate to say this, but you actually are. You're obeying the military's every order – under protest though, but the important thing is that you end up doing whatever they wanted you to do in the first place –, you live for the military, and you die for it if it's what it wants. You're the state's property."

Twenty seconds of silence followed.

"Might so be, but…"

"No buts. We're now going to call Loraine, and we're going to eat dinner there."

"I can go to the library and see if there's anything useful there," Alphonse offered.

"…Actually, that's a good idea. I don't mean to…" Patricia said.

"Yeah, I know. It just happens a lot lately." Alphonse looked away. "I'll get going."

And he went away, just like that. The two remaining teenagers looked after him.

"I shouldn't have said anything," Patricia said, blaming herself for Alphonse's state of depression.

"I think he'll be alright," Edward said. "And besides, now we get some research done."

"That's right. No, now I'm gonna call Loraine."

The phone call was quickly finished, with the agreement that they should meet at Loraine's in an hour.

"But what're we gonna do now?" Patricia asked.

"Dunno. Dinner's in an hour and the train's leaving in three…" Edward thought aloud.

"I know!" Patricia exclaimed. "Or, at least what I'll do. You can go and, I don't know, look at automail parts for Winry or something. I'ma call a friend."

"A friend?"

"Yeah. A friend. I met him at the train between Central and Rush Valley. Alexander Osbourne, his name is." Patricia smiled.

"Alexander Osbourne? Sounds like an asshole."

"Stop that! I can meet whoever I want to meet!"

"I know, and I won't stop you. But don't come and complain is he's a rapist or something!" Edward stomped off. "I'll see you in an hour!"

"Yeah, you sure will," she yelled after him. "And besides, Alexander's nice!"

She sighed. What's up with him now?

Ah, nothing to worry about. He would eventually calm down. The positive side about Edward was that his temper didn't last long.

Another phone call and Patricia was on her way to 8 Iron Road. The funny thing about this town was that almost every single street was named after something associated to automail; Iron Road, Joint Lane, Shoulder Street… Terribly weird.

Well, she got there and knocked on the door.

"In a minute!" a voice from inside said.

The door opened after an instant and a familiar face peeked out.

"Hi. You're Patricia, right."

"Yeah, last time I checked. And you are Alexander Osbourne."

"Yes, but it's Alex. I'll not respond to anything else."

"Okay, Alex, then it's Trisha for you."

"We have an accord, Trisha."

Patricia looked at him. He was tall, five or six inches taller than her, had brown hair and light blue eyes. He had an accent, it would be English in her world, but they weren't in her world, now were they?

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"Yes, of course." He stepped aside and let her into the small, Spartan house.

"It's…" Patricia started to say.

"Not much, I know, but it's enough." He smiled at her.

"I was gonna go with nice, but not much is fine too." Patricia grinned.

"Nice works too. You know what?"

"What?" Patricia looked at Alexander.

"I think I like you. You've got humor."

"I've always heard the opposite," Patricia smiled.

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Alexander Osbourne. Alexander Osbourne. Alexander. Osbourne.

Alexander Osbourne.

Edward growled. What did Alexander Osbourne have that he didn't have?

The way he walked would have scared any psychologist or therapist on this side of the universe out of their pants.

But no one could blame him. His girl was after all stolen away by Alexander Osbourne.

Sorry. His potential, possibly future girl rather talked with Alexander Osbourne than with him.

Grr.

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Outside Loraine Lewis's house it was quiet, not at all like the hectic life in the middle of the city. It was a small grey house with coppery green roof and small windows. It was pitiful, really. They had the money to buy a new house, a bigger one since Sean was one of the greatest automail engineers in Rush Valley, but no.

Well, Patricia shouldn't complain. It was after all the house she'd lived in for four months last year.

"Are we gonna go in?" Edward asked.

"Yes, we are. Just… be polite, alright?" Patricia said.

"I'll try," Edward said.

Patricia raised her hand and knocked on the door, which after a moment opened and revealed a brown/grey knot on the top of a familiar head with blue, bright eyes. Loraine Lewis.

"Hello, Patricia! How are you today?" she said.

"Hi, Loraine, I'm great," Patricia replied.

"That's great, but who's your friend?" Loraine asked. "You said that you would bring somebody, but you didn't say who he is."

"Hi, ma'am," Edward said with one of his charm smiles. "My name is Edward Elric, the famous state alchemist."

'Oh, that's really smart, Edward. You're telling a military-hating old lady that you're in the military. And you're supposed to be a genius.'

"A state alchemist…?" Loraine said and studied Edward closely.

"Yes, ma'am. That's right." Edward fired off another charm smile. "The Fullmetal Alchemist actually, you might have heard of me?"

Loraine giggled a little, she wasn't used to young men charming her like this one did, and calling her 'ma'am'… He had her trapped in a small steel box.

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It was eight-thirty p.m. and the train to Central was leaving in half an hour. Edward and Patricia were saying goodbye to Loraine.

"The food was delicious!" Edward said as he went away from the house.

"Patricia… could you wait a second?" Loraine asked.

"Yes, of course. What is it?" Patricia said while motioning for Edward to keep on walking, and that she'd catch up.

Loraine looked at Edward's slowly disappearing back, and then at Patricia, and then at Edward's back again. "He'd make a great husband… or you kids prefer the term 'boyfriend', right?" she said when he was out of hearing range.

"No, I, erm, Loraine!" Patricia stuttered. "He's just a friend, that's all."

"Oh, right. That's the term you youngsters use. 'Just friends', that's bullshit…"

"Loraine!"

"So, so, Patricia. You need to go now, you don't want to miss your train, right?"

"Yeah, I really should get going. Bye!"

"Goodbye, and have my observation in mind!"

God, stubborn old lady.

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Song of the day: Like a Man Possessed – The Get Up Kids

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