Well, well, well... look who finally got off her lazy butt and wrote this chapter? More thought that I wanted went in to the last half of this story. Of course, I wrote it by hand and it was all in one shot... and it counts as the end of my writer's block. Eheh heh. I hope that people like it.

Everything has a Price
Chapter Three, "Don't act like that"

"Why didn't you grab an umbrella?" Alphonse asked with an annoyed-sounding sigh. He couldn't change his facial expression, but Edward knew that a glare was what he was missing.

"Eheh heh heh..." Edward rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Um... well... there wasn't one?"

Another annoyed sigh came from his younger brother.

"I... I didn't need one," Edward laughed. He started walking towards his brother, when he noticed all of the children surrounding his brother. All looked to be around five to eight years old, laughing and playing and having fun.

His eye twitched.

"Al... why did you want to come here today?" he asked, his voice suddenly low and tired.

It was Alphonse's turn to laugh nervously. He turned to the children that surrounded him. "It's a buddy reading day. I thought that it might be fun..."

"Fun...?" He said the word as if he didn't understand what it meant. "Fun? Al, we have more important things to get done. We're supposed to be studying--"

Something tugged on his pant leg. He glanced down and saw her, a sweet little girl with big green eyes and flaming red hair. She wore a pink dress with matching shoes, and her hair was tied back with, yet again, a pink ribbon that matched her dress and shoes. She smiled up at him with the sweetest smile any child could have.

"Wead dis for me?"

Edward's eye twitched. The little girl was so sweet that he couldn't bring himself to tell ehr to just go away. No, he was not that cruel. She was just a sweet little girl. He'd be heartless to even think of doing that. Besides, he was already here, so why not go along with his brother's plans? He sighed heavily, and plucked the book from the girl's hand. He gazed over the title of the book. It was The Three Little Pigs.

Oh joy... he thought, forcing a smile on his face. "C'mon, let's go find a place to sit down."

"...The third little pig was too clever for him... The end!"

It took quite a bit of effort from Edward not to jump to his feet and run out of the library. He had just finished reading through The Three Little Pigs for the fifth time that day. Something about the way that he read it seemed to fascinate all of the little kids, and they swarmed around him, demanding that he read it to them next--or again, as the case was sometimes.

"Alright, children!" the librarian that seemed to be in charge of the buddy reading announced cheerfully. "Time's up for today! Your parents are here!"

The children all jumped up, buzzing with excitement. Their loud and bubbly chatter blurred together until all that could be heard were a few words that managed to struggle above the hum of the other voices. Edward remained on the floor, with the book in his hands. He watched the children as they left with their parents. They were smiling and laughing, excitedly telling their parents about the stories that they had gotten to hear that day.

Edward gave a little smile as he watched them. He was vaguely reminded of himself and Alphonse when they were that young; after hearing some new tale they would go to their mother and tell her all about it. They would retell the tale to her, making sure to emphasize all of their favourite parts, or just the parts that seemed to catch her attention the most. Now, looking back on it, he knew that it was silly. Their mother always acted as though it was he first time hearing those stories, even though she had heard them all before. She indulged them in their excitement.

The parents that had come to pick up their kids now were doing the same thing.

"Oniisan," Alphonse called softly to his brother as he walked up behind him. "We should get going now, too."

Edward glanced up at his younger brother with a grin and nodded. "Sounds good. I'm starved!" he declared.

His declaration was conveniently followed by his stomach growling. For the first time since he had woken up that day he realized that he hadn't eaten yet. With the kids holding on to his attention, he had just been too busy to think about that. Now that he had nothing to do it was really hitting him. He was getting hungry.

"Mmmnn..." he moaned as he stretched his arms casually over his head. He then pushed himself to his feet and said, "I left my money back at the hotel room, though. We're going to have to go there first. Al."

His brother gave an audible, ringing sigh. "Oniisan..."

Edward grinned at him again."I know, I know... Don't give me that."

"Fine," his brother sighed again. He turned around and headed for the front entrance. "I'll meet you outside, then. You have to put the book away."

"Oh... okay." It was his turn to sigh. Makes sense, I guess... Even though I didn't pull it out, I used it.

When he had first discovered his brother's plans for the day, he had been irritated. They had much more important matter to deal with. They had to find the Philosopher's Stone, had to restore their bodies to their original forms. Playing with children had nothing to do with that. Maybe one day, when they had the time to fool around, it would be okay, but at the moment, it could only be a waste.

Or so he had thought.

As he read to the children, he remembered the times that he had played with Nina. It was relaxing. For the first time in months he got the chance to take a break and do something that was normal. This had nothing to do with being a National Alchemist, nothing to do with wars or death, or fighting the Homunculus, or trying to track down where the red stones were coming from and how to make them. He'd enjoyed it.

Edward made his way through the maze of bookshelves until he found the section for Fairy Tales. His eyes scanned over the section as he attempted to locate where it was, exactly, that the book was supposed to go.

"Edward... Elric..."

Edward gasped and spun around, dropping the book in the process. His eyes widened in shock. It was the woman in white. She stood at the far end of a bookcase near him, staring back at him with a small smile. Half of her body was hidden from his sight, but all he needed to see was her face to know exactly who she was. She was the woman from his dream the night before. And he was certain that she was, though she looked a great deal paler now, that she was also the woman from the shop.

"You..." he began, but stopped when he failed to come up with anything else to say.

The woman in white took a step back. She cast her eyes shyly to the ground. She looked nervous, or scared. Either, or both. He couldn't tell.

"Who are you?" he demanded, using all of his will power to sound calm. She seemed a little skittish; he did not want to scare her off. "What do you want with me?"

She did not reply to his questions, but backed away a little more. "Scared", came to his mind again. She was definitely scared of something. But what? Him?

He did not care about the "what" or the "why".

"Hey, you're the one following me, so don't act like that!"

No, that was not true. He did care about those things.

"What do you want...?" he repeated himself.

She smiled a little, sweetly, tilting her head to one side in an attempt to look cuter. "I just wondered if you could tell me yet," she finally said, before disappearing behind the bookcase.

Edward growled lowly. She wanted to know? What? What did she want him to tell her? What exactly was it that she wanted to hear from him?

"...your price..."

He stared hard at the place where she had been standing. Something was going on, and a feeling in his gut told him that he was not going to enjoy it.