Disclaimer: Already stated in the first chapter...

A/N: Another chapter revised. Other than that, nothing's different. But, something about this chapter, foundationally, is off. I think it has something to do with the conversation between Ed and Roy, and I'm almost sure it is. I'll ponder over it some more.

Chapter Five: Unofficial Duties

Tapping a auto-mail index finger upon the phone's earpiece, Ed gave a crooked stare toward his brother who stood next to him silently. The echoing ringing on the other end began to sound all intermingled from repetitive ringing. Ed growled after the ninth ring,

"If he's going to sit on his egotistical ass, the least he c-"

"This is Mustang." Ed choked a startled cough as his superior's voice reverberated from within the earpiece in utmost supremacy.

"Edward Elric, reporting in Tuscal… sir." he voiced routinely. Although, he hated having to be forced to show respect for the Colonel, he held the tinniest personal respect somewhere; he'd never admit it.

"What is it, Fullmetal?"

"I need you to check something for me." Ed leaned on the phone's post leisurely, throwing the people in his vicinity a sweep of a glance in case of wondering eyes.

"What is it?" there was a short pause, "I hope you don't intend to skip your current duties for matters concerning a certain stone. I'll give you fair warning that that plan will be short-lived." A twitch plucked at Ed's brow as he switched the earpiece to the other ear in agitation.

"Could you consider my request, Mustang?" Ed said through clenched teeth.

"Sir," Mustang corrected.

"It's nice to know you respect me." Ed said, something like mock appreciation laced somewhere within his voice. Mustang reluctantly chose to ignore the comment and added,

"Use respect when talking to your superior." There was a pause in which he grunted a sigh. "What is it you need, Ed?" Ed straightened.

"I need information on a resigned State Alchemist; Bryce Lindaman." Another pause in which the Flame Alchemist wrote down the name.

"I'll look into it." Ed cocked a golden brow.

"Can't you send military records here? Don't you know who that is?" How was he to find information on this Alchemist if information on him had to be sent by mail!

"It's someone I haven't had the pleasure to meet, yes." Ed pondered a moment. Either Bryce had resigned before Mustang had received his promotion almost four years ago, or Bryce had simply not been in Mustang's jurisdiction. Either way, Bryce wasn't involved in the military anymore. "As for the records; you know that sort of information is not only confidential, but important and having any of it misplaced would be a severe problem." Although Ed knew this, having it explained to him by Mustang seemed like a insult.

"Sooo…" a unhappy lilt in Ed's voice made the Colonel stare at the phone's earpiece at his ear, waiting for the sarcasm to set in. "… you want me to successfully review the research done by a lab, and then, if I find it, try to find anything within the research that may be unreported for the military's archives?" he gave a defiant snort and placed a fist upon his hip, "What a convenience."

"You're a supposed genius, I'm sure you'll manage. Information that I believe is vital to your investigation will get to you eventually when needed. Where is it that you're staying?" In Ed's opinion, this was a waste of time. Wouldn't it have been easier to have given him resources to review this lab before sending him unprepared? Heh, that sounds too simple; the military's gotta make this challenging. Ed thought, How could I forget?

"The Lindaman residence is as best as I can give you…" Mustang jotted it down before a pause induced itself there on the other line, "Wait, you're staying at his house and you haven't asked about his previous involvment with the military?" Without missing a beat,

"It's not exactly something I can bring up without rising their suspicions, and I kina want to avoid that... Speaking of conveniences," Ed scowled, suddenly remembering a thorn in his side that he had to announce to his superior, "Did you know that this place is ironically unaccustomed to travelers." Another pause.

"Meaning…?" he was obviously waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"There are no hotels or trains!" he blurted, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world to someone who was unable to see the town for themselves. "It's by the grace of God or whatever that they have phones!"

"That means you can call my office any time you screw up. That is a convenience." he smirked as Ed's own words were played against him. "I have work to do, Fullmetal, are you done?"

Sure he's busy, Ed thought.

"Well?"

"Yessir… Thank you." he said by general habit and hung up.

"So, what did he say?" Al asked as Ed kicked a large rock with his boot, shoving his fists into his pants.

"He'll 'look into it.'" Ed mumbled, closing his eyes and leaning against the phone's post.

"They can't send records here?"

"I asked that, and I don't know how Mustang plans for this investigation to get anywhere."

"Maybe he'll send someone here?"

"Hmmm, maybe." he shrugged and opened his eyes to look at Al, grinning, "If Mustang wants this investigation to be successful, he'll do what needs to be done. Anything to get a promotion, remember?"

"What now?"

"If this place is anything like Resembool, then mail wouldn't get here until at least five days." he commented, sighing as he eyed a slightly old bookstore. Tuscal was located east of Central, the slightest to the north, and was far from East City. It was several hundred miles east of Resembool, come to think of it, of course mail would take a long period of time. "I suppose we have a few days to do what we'd like. Sounds nice." They could probably look for some leads on the Philosopher's Stone, but where would they look in a place like this? Their first possible winner would be to look for this lab. Alchemic amplifiers, alchemic military tactics and other such things usually were researched in these labs, like Lab 5. Hopefully, not to that extent, but just enough to give them the push they needed in their searching.

"That lab, we should probably look for it. It may have promising leads…" Ed did a mental check of any glimpses he may of seen of any sort of official-looking building. None. He remembered fleetingly that he was also supposed to be getting new clothes, but that wasn't exactly top priority.

"Where do you suppose we l-"

"Ed! Al!" Passing villagers looked immediately to the Elric brothers that had been named by a feminine voice. Ed tilted his head in the voice's direction and raised a golden brow in Brooke's direction as she ran to them. She stopped in front of them once she'd reached them, panting from her obvious sprint from her house and into town.

"Miss Brooke?" Al questioned, using such politeness for her status of being a year his elder.

"Just Brooke, Al." she corrected before standing up straight, "I was wondering- if it wasn't too much to ask, because I know how busy you must be- if I could ask you two a favor?" she wrung a piece of paper in her hands as she stared at them intently. Ed hadn't noticed it before now.

"Depends on what it is." Ed stated simply, earning a sigh from his younger brother.

"See, I waited too long to ask Jake if he'd help bring groceries in from town and he went off with his friends so, I was wondering if you guys could help? It's not that much and I usually have Jake doing it, and I would normally never ask this of guests, but I-"

"Don't worry, Brooke, we'll help. Won't we, brother?" Ed turned his face away, hating the fact he'd been put on the spot.

"Let's get this over with, I guess." he said, turning swiftly on his heel, intent on reaching the local market. He had no idea where to go first hand, however. Al and Brooke hurriedly caught up to his quick pace, Brooke matching his steps to walk beside him. She eyed him a moment and said,

"Thank you, Ed. You sure you don't mind?" he gave her a sideways glance and, after a short pause, flashed her a reassuring grin. They had spare time on their hands, why not?

"Nah…"

He realized that it wasn't as devastating as he'd though it would be, grocery shopping. Then again, Brooke wasn't shopping for anything other than food, so of course it would be simple. Winry, who he had had previous shopping experiences with, would browse around for hours before she settled on a actual load of things. He also had to consider the fact that most of everything was grown in Tuscal rather than imported, unless needed; it was cheaper that way.

Needless to say, it took maybe less than a hour to get everything, which was all collected in five bags. Al insisted that he carry three of the bags, and a look from him to his older brother persuaded Ed to take the bags that Brooke carried. She had asked that of them, anyway.

"I want to thank you two again." she said as she clasped her hands behind her back. She felt sort of odd having them carrying something and herself empty-handed, so she had to do something with her hands as to relieve some of the feeling.

"Don't mention it." Al said kindly, the bags in his hands less than actual effort to carry, "Besides, Ed needed new clothes so we'd have to carry bags either way." Brooke looked up at the metallic helmet,

"New clothes?" she then gave Ed the once over, "I thought for sure you'd have a spare set of clothes? More than anything, a military uniform?" Ed stared at her a moment before giving a short snort.

"You wouldn't catch me dead in that garb."

"Why not? I mean, you serve the military, although, I have no idea why you'd have the aspiration to do that. If your in the military; serving this country, wouldn't you want to show it?" She noticed Ed's gaze was unnaturally focused straight ahead, intent on not to look at her.

"My 'aspiration', as you put it, to be a part of the military in the first place, never was. Just because I wear the watch, doesn't mean I'm doing it because I'd want to."

"Then why join the ranks?" What she really wanted to ask was "Why become a 'Dog of the Military?'", but refrained from doing so. He gave a grunt in response and quickened his steps, flickering a glance at his younger brother. She inserted a leap in her step to match his pace and eventually resulted in grabbing at his sleeve,

"I didn't mean anything by it… Sorry for prying." He stopped at the pull on his arm, and hoped she hadn't felt the hard metal beneath his coat. She gave him a light look, "Besides, I heard from father that you're not like the other State Officials. A real 'Hero of the Common Man,' they say." He gave a small laugh and looked at her a cocky smirk playing upon his lips.

"They do?" a unoccupied hand came to the back of his head in mock modesty, "It's really on in a day's work."

"Brother…" Al sighed, a light laughter in his hollow voice.

"What?"

"You said you were going to shop for new clothes, right?" Brooke released his arm and continued to walk. She stopped once she realized that the brothers hadn't followed her, "Well? I know a place where Ed could get some that he may like. Coming?"

"Coming." Al said happily, careful not to bust the bags he had offered to carry, "C'mon, brother." A sense of foreboding came over the older brother as he watched Brooke walk ecstatically toward a clothing store. If her shopping was anything equivalent to Winry's frenzy for wrenches and mechanics, Ed would be in there a while, even after he'd made his selection. She'd shove several things under his face, telling him how well it would look on him probably… Women…

"Brother?"

"Yeah, I'm coming."

Much to Ed's amazement, Brooke wasn't too impulsive with suggestions and he had quickly chosen a set of clothes and paid. The set was practically no different than the clothes he already had; plain black shirt and black paints. When Brooke had asked for Ed to show her and Al what they looked like after he'd tried them on, he'd declined sternly for obvious reasons. One, the shirt he'd chosen would show his auto-mail and two, it was simply degrading in his honest opinion. He gave Brooke the latter for his excuse.

With shopping done and the sun now high in the cloudless sky, they made their way to the large house in the distance, Brooke leading.

"As soon as you're able, I need those dirty clothes of yours." she said to Ed and then turned to Al, "Do you have any clothes to wash?" Al gave Ed a quick look, hoping for Ed to think of something as a alibi as to why Al wouldn't have any clothes for him to wash.

"No, I washed my own clothes a day or two back." Brooke shrugged,

"Alright, well if you need them washed, you can tell me."

How long were the brothers going to be able to keep coming up with false reasons for everything? Eventually, the family would get suspicious and the cat would be out of the bag. Ed pushed the thought aside; he'd worry about that when it happened, he supposed.

"The day's still early, what all do you guys have planned?" Brooke asked, making conversation.

"We have our investigation we have to work on…" Ed said half-heartedly, twitching his nose at a itch that couldn't be scratched for his hands were full. He suddenly looked at her back in a new light, "You know this place pretty well, right?"

"Yeah, why?" she looked at him over her shoulder.

"Do you know where that abandoned lab is located? You mentioned it yesterday." Brooke looked off somewhere a moment, visualizing the map she had seen in her father's study that he pinpointed the said lab. She nodded, making Ed's anxiousness and hopes dilate.

"It's a good ways out of the outskirts from here." she made a bold offer, "I could give you a map if you'd like."

"We'd like that very much if you don't mind, that is." Al piped before Ed's mind even registered the generous offer. This was a solid lead, and it was, by far, the easiest to obtain.

- - - - - - - -

Brooke pushed aside several books, taking her bottom lip between her teeth as she flipped through several rolls of maps in search of one in particular. This study smelt highly of old parchment and binding glue that stuck books to their spine.

"Ah!" she let out a small cry as she peered over a the rolls of maps and found the one she'd wanted. Internally, she felt a hardness and a softness in the giant leap she was doing to help the brothers; giving them this map to a lab that she wasn't even sure was there. Not only that, but it was her father's and his alone. An odd feeling, a since of foreboding, she guessed, had told her to let them find it in covert. Why she was so adamant to help them, she didn't know. They had a look about them, a stern determination in the oldest brother.

Giving a firm nod of reassurance to herself that this was for the good of others, she turned to leave the empty study.

Ed and Al stood on the porch, Ed leaning on one of the house's support beams while Al stood patiently at the foot of the porch's steps. Their gazes shot up toward the door as Brooke came out, a rolled up map in her hands.

"Are you sure your dad doesn't mind?" Al asked as Ed took the map to give it a look over silently.

"What he doesn't know, won't hurt, I suppose…"

"But Brooke!" Al started, "I can't possibly t-"

"C'mon, Al." Ed suddenly spoke up, rapping a auto-mail knuckle on his brother's shell to catch his attention, "If we start now, we'll be back by dark."

"But, didn't you hear Brooke?" Ed stopped and looked over his shoulder at Al, a brow arched, "Her dad doesn't know and w-"

"That's something she'll have to explain to her dad, not us." he turned back around, looking down at the map before rolling it up and continuing his walk.

"She can g- … Don't you want to sp- Argh, Ed!" Al scoffed, turning to Brooke a final time and bowing shortly before running up to his brother.

Brooke shook her head and grabbed the front door's handle.

Determined for sure…

A/N: I know, I know, with all the time it took me to update, I could have updated a lot longer of a chapter, but I wanted to make sure that everything tied together, so that, when this story is over, it's a smooth conclusion, not a jump-in-front-of-your-car kind of ending. There's a sequel to this, so that means I also have to keep that in mind. Anyway, reviews much welcome!

Eine Kleine Katze: Yes, this will be a Ed/ Brooke. This is the first attempt at a original character pairing with a canon, but... uh, I'm hoping I'm doing it justice?

Kesiah: I'm trying my best to avoid a Mary-Sue (cringe). Oh, and I plan to go back and fix that whole sandal thing, I've taken note! Nit-picking is something I enjoy; it helps me look at it in a new way... in a sense, I guess. ;3