a/n I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist

Chapter Nine

After a while longer searching the campsite Ed said with a groan. "I'm going to have to retrace my steps."

" That is for the best. We were to meet up with the others if we found you before transport arrived." Hawkeye said, as she stood and brushed off her knees and hands, which were lightly dusted with dirt. With that they all made their way slowly out of camp as they carefully watched the ground for missing screws.

Chen was the first to find one, at the bottom of the small hill they had rolled down after he had tackled her. She held the tiny screw up triumphantly and rushed back to the others. "I assumed if one had fallen out around here, it would have been while you were rolling Edward."

"Thanks." Ed said as he carefully took the missing piece. He still blamed the girl for the whole situation, but didn't want to be lectured further at the moment. "The other two are probably near where we were attacked. Keep an eye out though. I HAVE to find them all. She'll be much more angry if some are actually missing."

Chen rolled her eyes fully believing Ed was being melodramatic. He glared at her in return, but was interrupted from further argument by Mustang ordering them to move on. "I'm sending you the repair bill." Ed shot behind him before he rushed to catch up with Mustang. "Just so you know."

"Fullmetal. Stop arguing with the princess. It reflects badly on the entire team." Mustang said as Ed reached his side.

"You have no idea how terrible she is or you would be on my side. "Ed said in return as he frowned and continued to watch the ground for more screws.

"Fullmetal… Edward… there are going to be times in this career where you will be forced to deal with difficult people." Mustang said with a sigh. "Just. Try not to become one of them."

" I AM NOT DIFFICULT!" Ed yelled, insulted.

"Calm down, that isn't what I said. "Mustang said with a frown.

"NO!" Ed yelled, voice cracking. " No. I won't calm down. In the last week I've been thrown from a moving train, I've had to walk miles in the middle of nowhere while every step filled with pain. I've had to make do with what I had with me and what I could manage to scavenge. Deal with the most annoying hotel staff on the planet. DRUG TO AN UNDERWEAR STORE. Fought a bunch of idiots while again still hurting. WHILE SHE COMPLAINED THE WHOLE TIME. I'm exhausted, hungry, and sore. AND I'm going to get beaten by my mechanic so don't tell me to calm down! When was the last time you were thrown from a train?!"

"I can see why that would be difficult." Mustang said attempting to keep a straight face.

"You're making fun of me, but that's just because you don't know the whole story."

"Put it in your report…and calm down."

"Stop blaming everything on me Edward Elric!" Chen said from a bit further away as she and Hawkeye continued to search the ground. " None of it was my fault!"

"IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT YOU SPOILED SELF ABSORBED BRAT!"

"How is this my fault?" Chen said as she marched up to Ed and poked him in the chest.

"You got us thrown from a damn train." Ed said as he moved away from her.

"Language, Fullmetal." Mustang interrupted. "You have a lot to learn, Edward. Don't argue with women, you'll never win."

"Shut it Mustang. I refuse to lose this argument BECAUSE I AM RIGHT." Edward yelled.

"When are you going to let the spat on the train go?" Chen said.

"UGH!" Edward threw his arms in the air, giving up on the idea of reasoning with Chen.

"As I told you," Mustang said with a smirk. "They're always right. Just let them think they won, then do it your way."

"What was that?" Hawkeye said from behind Chen.

"Nothing." Mustang said quickly.

They had arrived back where the prisoners were caged, and Ed was still one screw short. Understandably, this upset his, as was evidenced by his pacing and muttering under his breath. Havoc had made the mistake of suggesting Ed simply buy a replacement screw when they returned to the city.

Ed's muttering grew worse, and the dark looks he was directing to Havoc and Chen were far from comforting. Havoc was uncomfortable with the young alchemist's glares. After all, technically, Edward outranked him and could make his like miserable. Chen was unaffected by the glare. They would soon part ways and it was unlikely they would ever meet again. She'd had far worse threats than moody teenage glares directed at her, so she simply ignored him.

Mustang too was ignoring Ed's mumbling. He assumed it to be an improvement over the screaming. At least he wasn't drawing attention to them like this. "It's just a screw. It is no big deal." Chen said.

" No big deal?! Winry's going to kill me for this!" Ed yelled.

"Who? Why would she kill you for this? It's not like you planned to fall off a train."

"We DIDN'T fall off a train, we were pushed. Which only happened because some people don't know when to shut up. Now I'm going to die because my arm is messed up again already."

"Well, if it's an 'again already' situation you can hardly blame me." Chen said snidely." Clearly you are either careless or keep poor company. Or it's substandard work to begin with."

"It's the best there is! I'm certainly keeping poor company now." Ed said angrily. "AND I'M SENDING YOU THE REPAIR BILL!"

"Send it to my father. He will get to it eventually." Chen said still unconcerned.

"How much will it cost to repair?" Havoc asked curiously.

"With all the pieces found, provided nothing else falls off, if Winry gives me the usual discount…plus rush order and travel charges and I don't rush or annoy her…" Edward trailed off as he muttered calculations under his breath for several minutes before quoting a sum equal to the rent on a standard East City apartment. His coworkers all seemed shocked at the amount, Havoc and Breda's eyes widened and Fuery paled. Mustang was already well aware of the cost as was Hawkeye , having signed off on his repairs once before.

"Well no wonder you're always hungry!" Havoc said. "Have you even paid off your first set yet?"

"I'm not broke, I'm growing." Ed said indignantly. "It was paid for before I even recovered, and I make a good salary."

"Plus if he damages it on a mission he's reimbursed." Mustang added.

" Shh, I was going to make the princess pay for it this time." Ed stage whispered.

"We will be forwarding your expense report to Xing so she'll be paying either way." Mustang said. "However, you will have to send for your mechanic. You don't have any accumulated leave left after your last one."

Edward shrugged, as he had already planned to send for Winry instead of going to her. Then he thought about it for a minute and couldn't think of when he could have possibly used up any leave. " Wait a minute. I've never taken leave how can I be out?"

"Yes you did, when you disappeared to take care of whatever you needed to do before your first mission." Mustang said. "I had to mark it down as something."

"Fine, I'll call her when we get home." Ed said with a shrug still not very concerned about the leave time issue since it wasn't like he was planning a vacation anytime soon.

Transport arrived from a nearby town named Kirkwood that was not on the railway an hour later. Breda, Falman, Havoc, and Fuery rode on the truck with the prisoners to avoid any attempts of escape while Mustang and Hawkeye rode in the car with Edward, Chen and Alphonse. They drove away from the tracks for roughly ten minutes before turning onto a dirt road.

They would reach Hamlet following this road in about two hours and from there take a train back to East City. Ed was annoyed to learn they had been so close to Hamlet, and had been walking away from it. Chen's smug expression wasn't helping matters either. Neither was Mustang's assurance that he had assumed the boys would head toward East City rather than Hamlet.

Truthfully, Edward had never taken this particular route before, and hadn't known they were close to town. He wasn't about to admit to that though, so he allowed Mustang's assumption that Ed's chosen route was based on his stubbornness be the official reasoning. This wasn't enough to curb Chen however. " We could have been back in the city already if you had listened to me."

"Now you're an expert of Armetirian geography?" Edward growled back. "Assuming your navigating skills are as terrible as your diplomacy we still would have been lost for weeks if you'd led us."

"Clearly yours is worse." Chen said in return as Al sighed.

"I wasn't lost, I was headed back to East City. We had no idea what was going on with the train system so we couldn't be certain it would be safe to board another train." Ed said. This was now his official excuse for not heading to Hamlet. "If it had just been me and Al I might have risked it, but not when I was supposed to be keeping your big mouth safe."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself to ensure your ego doesn't shrink with the rest of you." Chen smirked.

Al sighed and held Ed down. "…WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE COULD RIDE ON A DUST MOTE? I'M NOT SMALL!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I think I heard a mouse squeaking or something." Chen said as she pretended to look around.

"No." Al said tiredly. "Do NOT drag me into this again. I'm not passing messages back and forth this time.

"Behave Fullmetal." Mustang added in a tired tone. Edward shot him an affronted look. No one understood how truly annoying this girl was, they were all tricked by her evil adorableness luckily after many years of dealing with Al's he was immune.