Chapter Title: The Woes of Stolen Fish
Characters: Scar, Ed, Al, Nameless Fish Stall Owner
Pairings: None! I can't write romance for the life of me!
Spoilers: Nope.
Warnings: Cursing, mild violence
Disclaimer: If I owned the show, there would be more of the oh-so-adorable friendship between Al and Scar. Unfortunately, I don't own it. XP
A/N: Sorry for the wait, school is being utterly evil. I have by now realized that my story does not fit anywhere into the canon timeline, but I will attempt to put things in perspective for you all (and for me): The 1st Branch of the Library has not yet burned down (ignore the fact that Scieska still works at the library), the 5th Laboratory incident has not happened (so therefore Al and Scar are not buddies yet), Scar has not met Leo and Rick (so they won't be in the story…sorry…), nobody knows about the homunculus (so they won't be here either) and the Ishbalan refugees are still out in the desert somewhere. And yet the thing with Marco has happened. Giant gaping plot holes everywhere, I know.Oh, and on another note, everyone say 'hi' to my two new muses, Scar and Envy!
Scar: Hi.
Envy: Hi.
They're going to get their own story detailing their adventures as muses shortly. Won't that be fun.
"regular speech"
'thoughts'
cat speech-
It had been a long night for Scar. Not only had he had to deal with Ed and Scieska's noise for what seemed like ages, but once they were both asleep he suffered through a terrible bout of insomnia. Darned cats and their nocturnal-ness. The horizon was beginning to turn the pinkish-grey color that signaled the approach of dawn by the time he was finally able to sleep. Again, he had no dreams.
It seemed that he had been asleep but an instant when a voice penetrated his consciousness and dragged it kicking and screaming back into awareness. -Sca-arrr…it's time to wake u-up…we have to go now…-
He opened his eyes slowly to find Ed's smugly grinning face only inches from his own. He narrowed his eyes and growled, -Get away from my face.-
Ed snickered and jumped away, -Somebody's in a bad mood this morning. Whazza matter, sleepy?-
Scar only glared, refusing to be baited, before rising in one fluid motion and stretching, finding his muscles stiff after a night spent on the floor. Once that was done he looked over to Scieska's bed to see that she was still asleep. Good, that made things easier. He padded over to window near the front door. After jumping up onto the ledge, a quick push revealed that it was unlocked. He turned to Ed with a quick, -Are you coming?- before sliding out and landing on the ground outside.
Ed gave a strangled, -Hey! Wait for me!- before scrambling out after him, -Don't you ever wait?-
Scar didn't even look in Ed's direction as he answered, -No. If you want to follow me, you need to keep up.-
Ed sighed, and the unlikely pair continued down the street. It was really a very pretty morning; there were still a few puddles here and there, but other than that all traces of the storm had disappeared. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and there were few people out on the streets this early in the morning. However, one thing put a damper on it. They were both very, very hungry. Fortunately, Scar knew exactly what to do about this. He led the way through the streets until they arrived at an open-air market, its many stalls filled with all sorts of things. They wandered through the aisles as best they could, since by now crowds were beginning to form, until at last they found what they were looking for: a fish stall. With precision timing Scar darted up, grabbed the closest fish between his teeth, and dashed back out of sight underneath a neighboring stall before the owner noticed a thing. It was much easier to do as a cat than as a tall and easily noticed person. After placing his prize down onto the cleanest bit of ground he could, he began to eat.
Ed just gaped, -You…stole…-
Scar looked up briefly, -Yes. How else did you expect me to get it?-
Ed waved an arm as he continued, -You could have paid f- oh. Never mind. Can I have some?-
The reply was succinct, -No. Get your own.-
Ed was about to protest, but saw that Scar wasn't about to change his mind or answer any more questions. So with a sigh at his growling stomach, he snuck towards the fish stall. Seeing a small tail hanging off the edge, just begging to be taken, he ran forwards and snatched it. But he was not as fortunate as Scar had been, and was spotted by the stall owner, a great hulking man who could probably have squished him under his shoe without thinking about it. And so ensued a merry (well…not so merry for Ed) chase, which lasted for a grand total of five minutes before poor Ed managed to lose the enraged stall owner in the crowd and make his way back to Scar. As the Ishbalan looked at him almost bemusedly, Ed dropped his fish and glared, -Not. One. Word.-
And so the pair ate in silence. Once they were finished, they stepped out from underneath 'their' stall…only to find themselves face-to-ankle with an angrily smug fish stall owner.
"So, 'ere're the li'l rats wot been stealin' from my stall!"
As the pair looked up, temporarily stunned, the intimidating man withdrew a wickedly sharp fish scaler from an apron pocket. Scar didn't take his eyes off of him as he quietly, yet urgently, stated, -Run. NOW!- before sprinting in the other direction. After a few feet, he turned to look back, only to see that Ed had not moved, appearing to be frozen to the spot. With a scowl, Scar turned and ran back. Nobody deserved death by a fish scaler while trapped in the body of a cat, not even Fullmetal. And so Scar got him to move out of harm's way in the only fashion he could think of at the moment: by ramming into him at full speed. It worked perfectly, but just as he knocked Ed backwards about a foot, he felt a searing stab of pain in his right shoulder. But, being himself, he managed to just grit his teeth and keep running, Ed now following behind. But the stall owner wasn't giving up that easily, and neither of them had the time to focus on anything other than getting away. The crowd was clearing to the sides as the chase progressed, blocking any way out through the stalls other than the center of the aisles, and creating a living maze of seemingly nothing but dead ends. And not only that, but as they continued their mad dash, Scar began to slow. The pain in his shoulder had escalated to where it felt like it was being stabbed with a white hot poker every time the arm moved, which was at the moment continuuously. It was only a matter of time before the man caught up enough to give him a harsh kick that sent him flying five feet until he crashed to the stone ground. Clenching his teeth in a pained snarl, he attempted to push himself up, but the stall owner wasn't finished yet. Another, harder kick sent him smashing into the side one of the wooden stalls, and a new pain in his chest alerted him to the fact that he now had at least one fractured or broken rib. Again he tried to get up, but found himself unable to; as a cat, his endurance for injury was far less than it had been when he was human. He couldn't do anything but hiss weakly as a rough hand lifted him by his neck, the tight grasp choking him.
"So, is the li'l rat regrettin' stealin' from me? Too la' fer that, now."
The man tightened his grip, cutting off Scar's breathing entirely, ignoring the shouts of protest from the crowd around him. Black spots danced in the corners of Scar's vision as he weakly fought for air. He was going to die. Here, as a cat, by a bully of a man. And there was nothing he could do.
But then, unexpectedly, the stranglehold on his throat weakened to the point where he could breathe. As he gasped for air, he vaguely heard the man shout out curses, and felt himself being swung by a waving arm. He looked down with blurred vision to see a small streak of yellow and grey fur darting around the man's ankles.
'Fullmetal…' his mind registered. He felt the man's weight shift, and knew what was about to happen, but could only think, '…run…' before the booted foot swung forewards, connecting squarely with the small furry body it was aiming for and sending it through the air to smash into the ground with a cry. Scar sighed and closed his eyes; he hated being helpless. Now they were both going to die.
"That's enough," came a familiar voice from behind, although in his current state Scar couldn't quite recognize it.
"Oh yeah? An' 'oo're you ta make meAAAAH!"
Curious, Scar opened his eyes to see the stall owner looking absolutely terrified and rather small in front of a huge, intimidating suit of armor. Alphonse Elric.
"Stop hurting them. You've done enough."
"Fine! Take the li'l rats if you want 'em so bad! Jus' don' hurt me!" the man shoved Scar into Al's hands and took off.
Al sighed sadly and hurried over to where Ed lay, seemingly unconscious, and scooped him up as well. "Poor little guys. Don't worry, I'll take care of you." Al carried them out of the market and through the streets until he reached the edge of the military HQ. There, he looked furtively from side to side and placed the two of them inside his armor before continuing to the barracks where he and Ed ususally stayed while they were in Central.
While he walked, Ed awoke with a groan, a little disoriented from the kick he had received. -Wha…happ'ned…?- he mumbled, before his eyes lit up as he remembered, -Where'sa bastard tha' kicked me…? Bite 'is ankles off…- he looked around and saw Scar, -Good…y're not…dead yet…- before dropping back into unconsciousness.
Scar had only a moment to ponder on the meaning of this statement before Al opened up his chestplate and withdrew the two of them, "Here we are, now. I'll get you fixed up. You look like you're hurt a lot worse. He must've stabbed you with something…"
As Al went to get some bandages, Scar took a look at his shoulder for the first time since it had been hurt. It was a messy stab wound, which fortunately hadn't gone deep enough to injure anything vital but would still make walking very painful. It was the worst injury; a quick prod to his side revealed that none of his ribs were fractured, but several were painfully bruised, and his windpipe seemed to be temporarily damaged. He was also covered in shallow lacerations and various bruises from the kicks he had received. He was thankful; it could have been much, much worse. Fullmetal's external injuries weren't that bad, just a shallow cut on his head, but he was definitely concussed. That could be a big problem. The sound of Al returning with medical supplies caused him to turn his head quickly, which elicited a sharp hiss of pain as his shoulder protested the movement.
"It's okay, I won't hurt you like that man did," Al said reassuringly, thinking that Scar was hissing at him, "I'll just clean this and wrap it up, now…" he soaked a small cloth in the water jar he had brought and cleaned the blood and dirt away from Scar's injury, then wrapped it tightly in a bandage, "There you go. Those are some weird marks on your arm. They remind me of…" for the first time, Al noticed the familiar scar, red eyes, and scowl of the cat. If he wasn't a suit of armor, his mouth would have dropped open. He exclaimed in a surprised voice, "Scar? How…when…you're a cat!"
Scar rolled his eyes and nodded, -Good of you to state the obvious.-
Of course, Al couldn't speak 'cat', but he knew what a nod meant, "Where's niisan? You have to know where he is!"
Scar pointed his left paw towards Ed, -Right there.-
"NIISAN!" Al swept Ed up into a hug, "I found you! But you're a cat too! How did this happen?" Of course, Ed was still knocked out so he didn't reply. Al realized this quickly and put him back down, "You're hurt, I shouldn't be moving you! Oh…what do I do…?" Al began pacing and quietly freaking out as Scar watched silently on.
A/N: Waaaah! I did it again! Why do I keep hurting Scar-san? WHY? -sniffle-
Scar: Because you have an exceedingly odd way of showing affection?
Envy: Because he can handle it and O'Chibi-san can't?
Ed (from background): HEY!
Scar: At least you're sorry about it and not cackling evilly like in Chapter 3.
Envy: Hurt the chibi more!
Ed (from background): HEY!
Envy, shouldn't you be hiding from all those crazed Hughes fangirls who are now after your blood because of Episode 25?
Crazed Fangirls: KILL ENVY!
Envy: Eep! -flees-
Awww, you two always make me feel better. -hugs-
Scar: We do try.
Now that I'm happy again, it's time to answer reviews.
Scar's fangurl: Thanks much. I stayed up late to watch it again on Thursday, too. Sorry, but no Leo and Rick, I'm afraid. Scar hasn't met them yet. And patience, now. I wish I could spend all my time writing, but unfortunately I have school and stuff.
Lunatic Pandora1: Yep, that it was.
PhantomAlchemist: Darned parental controls! I feel sorry for Al too.
lazerducky27: I'm such a huge bookworm it isn't even funny. XD
