Chapter twenty-four

Danny's POV

I had honestly never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life, everything was white and the snow looked so soft. The air was freezing cold but the view was absolutely stunning, snows flakes fell from the sky softening the ground.

I leaped from one pile of soft snow to another.

"This the most amazing thing ever!" I exclaimed.

"Im so glad I can finally feel it!" Al also exclaimed having just as much as fun as I was, I guess since getting his body back he hadn't been back to the snow so we were both experiencing it for the first time.

"The effect won't last long" Ed grumbled, "I hate the snow…"

I stood up straight.

"Thats what Lexie used always say"

Ed glared at me.

"She's the reason why I hate it, do you know how many buildings she forced me to jump out of when we were here last!" I don't think it was a question but Al responded anyway.

"Two" he smiled, "one when we were running from the military and the other to get Kimblee's attention…" His voice trailed off when Ed glared at him.

"Thank you Al, I totally needed you refreshing that memory for me" Ed stormed over to one of the phones, "Mustang said to call him when we got here so ill do that while" Ed paused and looked at us two playing in the snow, "while you two get over the fascination of the snow."

Ed continued over to the phone.

"Oh come on brother!" Al called out, "you were just as excited when we were here last!"

I sat down on the ground building a snow man.

"I was sixteen Al, you're nineteen" Ed called back.

"Don't take my fun away just because Lexie took yours away" Al argued.

Ed picked up the phone waving Al off.

Al sat next to me.

"Are you building a snowman?" he asked.

I nodded furiously.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, "it's the first thing you do when you go to the snow, haven't you built one?" I asked.

Al shook his head.

"Would you like to create a childhood memory together?" I asked with a smile.

Al smiled down at me.

"Yes, brother is such a sook now in the snow" Al moaned watching me build my snow man, "I don't know what made him hate the snow so much but it's not from jumping out of the buildings thats for sure" Al stated.

I stopped what I was doing and frowned, thinking.

"Didn't Lexie and Ed disappear in the snow for like a month or two?" I asked.

Al also frowned.

"Yeah they did but they never spoke about it" Al said in confusion, "and when I saw them again they were getting along way better, it was weird…"

I rubbed my chin.

"Maybe they had a life changing experience" I said raising my eyebrows at him.

Al thought about it and nodded.

"Maybe" he whispered.

I continued on with my snowman.

"Oh my turn" Al said shuffling over and flattening the snow.

Al clapped his hands and put them to the ground. The snowman that appeared in front of him was amazing that my mouth fell open.

"Woah" I whispered staring at it, "no!" I exclaimed suddenly making Al jump, "you can't use alchemy Al, thats cheating!"

His face dropped.

"Is not" he protested.

I jumped to my feet.

"If it's going to be a childhood memory then we've got to do it like normal children"

Al pointed at himself hurt.

"Im not a normal child?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"Normal children don't use alchemy" I paused thinking of the word Lexie used to call them, "normal children aren't geniuses" I pointed out.

Al crossed his arms and frowned at me.

"But I did as a kid" he grumbled at me.

"Thats because you were like a genius, its time to dumb you down" I pulled him to his feet, "look at my snowman compared to yours" I said pointing at them. Mine looked like it was actually done by a little kid his was like a master piece, "yours is too complex-"

A snowball hit my face shutting me up and I staggered away from Al.

"You don't like my snowman?!" Al snapped.

I picked up a handful of snow throwing it back at him but he ducked out the way.

"Thats exactly what I'm saying!" I snapped back, "we're trying to be normal people right now not alchemists!"

Al clapped his hands and a huge scary looking snowman appeared beside me making me scream.

"No this isn't fair Al!" I exclaimed stepping away from the snowman and another appeared beside me.

I stumbled way again.

"Shouldn't have made fun of my snowman then!"

I pointed at Al.

"Im trying to teach you to be a normal boy!"

He pointed back at me.

"I am a normal boy!"

"You are the furthest from being a normal-"

I wasn't great at dodging these flying snowballs because one hit my forehead and I hit the ground.

"You're so mean Danny!" Al moaned at me, "you're as mean as your sister!"

I sat up with my mouth open.

"I am not!" I said defending my honour, "my sister and I are complete opposites!"

Ed stood between us frowning at us.

"Are you two fighting about snowmen?" He asked.

"No!" I snapped at him.

"Yes!" Al snapped at the same time.

We both glared at each other.

"Al's being mean to me!" I moaned at Ed.

"I am not, Danny is making fun of my snowman and saying I'm not a normal boy so I might have thrown a few snowballs at him…"

Ed looked between us.

"Al you're not a boy anymore you're a man" Ed said to him then he turned to me, "I'm shocked you even managed to let Al bully you."

We both glared at Ed picking up handfuls of snow and throwing it at him, neither of us missed.

Ed stood there gritting his teeth.

"This isn't the time to be getting angry at me!" he snapped at us.

We both walked away from him.

"Ill be a boy if I want to" Al muttered.

"And I wasn't letting him bully me" I added.

"Oh come on you two, now you're both being childish" Ed said coming after us.

We both stopped, turning around and pointed at him.

"You're just as childish as us!" We both snapped.

Ed rolled his eyes at us slinging his arms over our shoulders.

"Well while you two were arguing about snowmen" Ed sighed at us, "Mustang said the Brigg's men found a cabin West of their perimeter in the mountains so thats where we are heading."

I looked up at him.

"By foot?" I asked.

Ed nodded.

"Yep thats the only way of getting up there"

I frowned, that was going to be a long trek.

"What about your auto-mail leg?" Al asked, "remember last time…"

Ed patted him on the shoulder.

"It should be fine as long as we don't get caught in any snowstorms but if we need refuge we can go to Brigg's wall, Mustang said if anything happens to go see Major General Armstrong"

Al nodded.

"Okay at least this time we have a back up plan"

Ed patted me on the head.

"But if we do go to see her you're not a Mustang" Ed said to me, I looked up at him and frowned.

"Why?" I asked.

"Last time did not go down well when Armstrong found out Lexie was with us" Al confessed, "we spent most of our time there in cells that she kept escaping from."

I raised my eyebrows.

"Im sure that didn't go down well" I muttered.

They shook their heads.

"No it didn't, she got us in a lot of trouble for that" Ed grumbled at me, "especially when she decided it was a good idea to cuff herself to me" I wasn't going to even ask about that one.


Lexie's POV

The moment we stepped off the train my mood turned sour and not because I was still stuck with Duke but because I was stuck with Duke in the snow, I hated the snow even more than I did last time I was here. It was nothing but full of terrible memories.

"Where do we start?" Duke asked.

I shrugged at him.

"What makes you think I know anymore than you?" I growled at him, "I heard just as much as you did before you shot his brains out."

I glared up at Duke and he rolled his eyes.

"We were in a tight position, we had the information and he was no longer any use, I don't even know why you're so upset that he's dead" Duke grumbled, "its not like it's the first person we've killed together."

I slammed my elbow into him but he didn't even flinch.

"You killed him, there is no us Duke"

Duke wrapped his huge arm around my shoulders pulling me into him.

"You know we'd make a great team if you weren't a little snarky bitch with an attitude problem"

I jerked away from him.

"Don't touch me" I growled walking away, I knew he was trying to get on my good side. I was the one Victor trusted the most at the moment since I managed to convince him that Duke was the one who had told our plan to someone, it was good thinking on my part but that meant Duke was going to be nice to me… Well he was going to try that didn't mean he was actually going to succeed at it.

I stood on the steps of the train station looking around. I had no clue where to start looking for this cabin.

"Well you're the brains here Alexis, how are we going to find the cabin?" Duke asked, "because you know the longer we take the more we are going to piss off Victor and the military is going to beat us" if he actually thought about it they should have already gotten to it. Thats what I was praying for so when we got there we would find the whole place empty.

"All right I've got an idea" I muttered not pleased with it but it would be worth a shot and get Duke off my back.

I walked up to the guy selling newspapers wrapping Duke's arm around me, I pushed aside all my hate for him just to get this job done and hopefully I would manage it before I was actually sick being this close to him.

"Excuse me" I called out, the guy turned around and smiled at me.

I smiled back.

"What can I do for you ma'am?" he asked.

I cuddled against Duke.

"Me and my husband are looking for my parents old cabin" I said through gritted teeth with a smile.

Duke played along pulling me closer into him.

"But we're not quite sure where it is, we know its in the mountains somewhere on the outskirts of Brigg's, would you have any clue where it is?" This was a long shot but might as well give it a try.

The man thought about it.

"We decided it was a good place to be alone for a honeymoon" Duke added.

His hand on my back travelled further down until it was holding my butt.

My whole body went tense.

"Oh is that place yours?" the man asked, "I always wondered who it belonged to" he said smiling at us while Duke kept me close.

I tried to push away slightly.

"It's a far hike though" the man added staring at us.

I giggled slamming my foot into Duke.

He flinched slightly letting me go.

"We're the adventurous type" I said pulling Duke's arm up so it sat higher on my back and not groping me in public, I honestly felt sick to the stomach.

"She loves taking risks" Duke wrapping me in his arms and kissing me on the head, okay now he was having way too much fun with this.

"Oh well its up in the mountains, West of Briggs, you can't miss it" the man said smiling at us, "it sticks out like a sore thumb if you're looking for it."

I pulled Duke away.

"Thank you" I called out waving at the guy, once we were out of sight I shoved Duke away from me. "You fucking old creep!" I spat, "don't you ever touch me again or I swear to god!"

Duke smirked.

"Gods not going to do anything about it" he laughed reaching out and stroking my cheek.

I whacked his hand away.

"But Victor will" I threatened him, "remember I'm Victor's most prized possession and imagine how he would react if I told him you've been putting your grubby hands all over me" I growled.

Duke rolled his eyes.

"He never used to care" Duke grumbled, "but the moment you were worth looking at he called dibs."

I glared at him. I hated making myself sound like a trophy but it was the only thing that kept Duke off me, it was easier than when I used to have to fight him off when I was younger.

"Come on" I grumbled, "you heard the guy, it's a long hike so we might as well get going" I took the lead trudging through the snow. Now I just had to hope we didn't get stuck in any snow storms or run into any Brigg's men, we'd be fine as long as we didn't cross into Brigg's territory or then we'd really be fighting the military.

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