My story feels a little plain... I really can't write any funny stuff --...

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Fullmetal Alchemist, I only own Esme and her inventions.

As a Shadow

chapter 2

In a corner of the woods, there is a white clothed young girl, brown short hair, with a bag and a yellow flag. The red words "Handy Handy Tools" looked bright under the sun. The girl kept panting, her face showed how tired she is, "Man! Stupid alchemy... still takes too much strength!" she stared at the broken green stone, "looks like it's still not good enough, and I thought it was better than the last one."

The girl dropped the heavy automail arm on the grassy ground, "so tired..." then her body dropped down, "I need some rest..." the girl closed her eyes, and fell fast asleep against the tree stem. Other than the birds singing, it was very quiet.

Meanwhile, Ed and Al were back with the military, and met Hughes coming up.

"Hey Ed, hey Al" he said.

"Where're you going?" Ed asked.

"I'm going to Roy's office, you coming?"

"Nah..." Ed replied very fast as if he didn't even think about it. Hughes laughed and noticed some change on Ed, "hey Ed, since when did you start wearing Jewery?"

Ed blushed, "I was forced to by an insane woman on the street!" he lied, "I just don't get how girls like these things? What so good about wearing a bunch of stones?"

"That's where you're wrong Ed, girl's think they're pretty in them! In fact, I think Elysia will look so cute in those, can't you imagine it?..." Hughes went on another ramble about how cute his daughter is. Then he noticed something more about Ed, "What happened to your arm, Ed? No wonder I thought something's wrong about you."

Ed stiffened and he tried to lie, "Something was wrong with it. I felt kind of weird with it and it was very uncomfortable so I took it off. And then I tried to put it back myself but it won't stay there, so I got mad and tossed it away. Then I lost it."

Hughes looked like he didn't believe it, "oh, sure. So I assume you're going back to Resembool to fix your arm, right?"

"Ye--yes!" Ed said, hoping Hughes wasn't feeling suspicious about anything.

"Okay... have a nice trip" Hughes raised an eyebrow and continued walking, "by the way, Ed, next time think of another way to get lazy, it's dangerous to have only one arm."

"Oh..." Ed forced a smile, relieved that Hughes is as smart as he could get.

"Brother, why did you lie about your arm?" Al asked.

"If that bastard Colonel Mustang get to know this, he's gonna be lecturing about it for who knows how many days and I can't get away from it..." Ed scoffed, "let's go catch the train going to Resembool!"

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"You lost your arm?" Winry yelled, she couldn't believe how stupid the guy in front of her is.

"Chill, Winry..." Ed's sweat dropped, "just fix it for me, I'm in a hurry."

"Oh yeah, just come here and tell me to fix things. All the reason you come home now is only for me to fix your arm?" Winry got really angry. Ed frowned, "things aren't simple as it seems, Winry. And also, I need you to look at something for me."

"What?" Winry rolled her eyes.

"This." Ed took out the necklace and Winry's eyes suddenly sparkled.

"Oh! It's a beautiful necklace!" Winry screeched as if she didn't have an argument with Ed a while ago, "is it for me?"

"No." Ed said, Winry's face turned down, "I want you to open each of these stones and study it. After that I want you to write me a letter about everything you know about these stones."

"Stones?" Winry examined the necklace and cracked one open in the middle with her wrench, and she gasped, "Oh my gosh! It has such an interesting pattern! But I wonder how they cal work together, they don't match really well at all, but something in there is making it so perfect and strange!"

"Enough!" Ed stopped her, "You can study it later, but fix my arm first!"

"Alright, alright..." Winry said not moving her gaze from the stone.

"...Che! Machine freak..."

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"Fullmetal lost his automail arm?" Mustang looked up from his paperwork, interested by this news.

"Yeah." Hughes said, "he said he lost it wen he took it off, but I doubt it."

Mustang smirked, "I'll go ask him personally."

"Roy, take it seriously," Hughes frowned, "it's dangerous for him to go around without one arm, with Scar on the loose and stuff. Besides, he's not gonna tell you the truth."

"It's better than spying off him." the colonel shrugged, "that doesn't work for Fullmetal."

"... I guess you're right."

"Let's just wait for him to come back now..."