Chapter 4: My Gift, My Curse

Jeez, who the hell does she think she is? Ed's thoughts echoed angrily in his mind. All he did was try to help her and he hadn't even really wanted to in the first place. When he finally had, she showed no gratitude toward him. That old bag could have had her arrested for public disturbance. He was also angry at his brother because Al had chosen to stay with Elly instead of leaving with his own flesh and blood.

But then he started kicking himself for getting so mad over some girl he didn't even know. He went from feeling mad to feeling foolish. He dug his hands into his pockets and kept his head bowed as he wandered the streets, headed nowhere in particular.

"Hey! Ed!" He heard a familiar voice yell out to him. Looking up, Ed turned around and saw Lt. Havoc waving, a cigarette dangling from his lip as usual. Ed waited for him to catch up and watched as Havoc huffed and puffed, attempting to catch his breath. "Phew!" He gasped, finally standing up from his hunched over position. "I'm so out of shape." Ed pursed his lips as he watched Havoc take another puff of smoke into his already exhausted lungs. He had to resist the urge to slap the damn thing from the man's hand, even though it would only be helping him. "So what brings you here?" Ed shrugged.

"Just passing through."

"Oh yeah? Where's Alphonse?" Ed muttered,

"Off with some lunatic."

"Oh you mean that girl." His attention clearly caught, Ed looked inquiringly up at him,

"Girl?"

"Yeah, Mustang mentioned seeing you two with some girl." Ed lowered his head in defeat. Great, now he'd never hear the end of it.

"Al looking for a girlfriend for himself?"

"Psh, she's a lot of things but girlfriend's not one of them."

"Havoc!" A female voice hollered for him.

"Ah jeez!" Havoc fumbled, immediately throwing the cigarette to the ground. Ed looked on curiously. As the brunette officer approached, Havoc smiled widely.

"Breaks over, Lieutenant," She informed then sniffed the air. "I thought you told me you were quitting."

"Eventually," He answered sheepishly and blushed. The woman rolled her eyes at him and politely bid Ed a good day before steadily walking off. Still looking sheepish, Havoc said goodbye and followed her quickly. Ed shook his head after him, then began to wonder what the military were doing here. He moved to keep walking but fell hard to the ground as something large smacked him upside the head. Groaning, he sat up off the ground and rubbed his temple, looking up he saw a large red ball rolling swiftly down the street. Passing him wildly and laughing up a storm, were three young boys, no older than ten. As he was about to go nuts on them for hitting him, he suddenly heard faint crying come from behind him. Getting to his feet, Ed turned around to see a young girl standing all alone, tears striding down her round cheeks in great streams.

"Give it back!" She managed to croak out, passing Ed like he hadn't been standing there. The three boys had now taken possession of the ball; they grinned at her and started laughing.

"Not a chance." One of the boys crooned, his brown eyes mocking her with delight. She sniffled,

"Why can't you share? I just want to play with you guys."

"As if," Another boy shot back. "You're a girl and there's no way we'd ever play with you. This ball is ours now so take off!" Ed could see her tiny form shake with a shattering sob and he glared at her oppressors. God, kids could be so dumb. He hoped he had never been that stupid when he was their age. She bowed her head, the tears still flowing.

"But my father gave it to me."

"Well it's ours now!" And the boys seemed to find that highly amusing as they all laughed again and turned to take off.

"Oh, no you don't." Ed muttered, clapping his hands palm to palm and then crushing them against the hard earth below. The boys gasped as a giant wall of hard rock flew up in front of them. The kid holding the ball, tripped and this sent the ball flying off ahead. Ed made the earth shoot forth from the ground, sending the toy flying towards him which he caught firmly with one hand.

All four children whipped around to him and the girl stared up at him in awe. He smiled wickedly at the three boys who all gasped and scrambled to their feet. "This ball belongs to the girl, don't even think about taking it from her again!" He warned and watched them race off in fear. He smiled gently down at her and handed the ball to her. She wiped her tears and smiled up at him, accepting it. Shyly, she thanked him and he grinned. "No problem." And he watched with pride as she took off running. He watched her and turned to walk away, then heard her tiny voice proclaim,

"Hey guys, wait up!" Dumbfounded, Ed fell to the floor.

Elly sat back onto the bottoms of her heels, still smiling faintly as Al slowly placed his helmet back atop his armor. He didn't quite know what to say so Elly spoke up, averting her eyes,

"You look quite a lot like your brother." Al said nothing because confusion had overwhelmed his thoughts. What did she mean? She was talking as if she had actually seen him.

"How-I mean..." Elly smiled at him again and even though he did not physically have one, he felt his heart stop.

"It's why I am where I am now. Why I'm even sitting here with you like this." Al still couldn't understand what she was saying. All the same he was still and patient, waiting for her to continue, hoping he'd come to comprehend. "It's why they forced me to leave." Al gasped, but it was so low she hadn't heard him. "I can't really blame them though. It scared me too."

"What did?" Al asked, finding his voice.

"My gift, my curse."

Ed, now bored, and admittedly lonely, surrendered to his desire to go and search for his brother. They had spent too much time idle as it was. And if anything had been precious to them along their journey,besides each other, it had been time. There just weren't enough hours in a day, or days in a week. Sometimes, however, it was just the opposite and days seemed to drag on like years. He figured those two could be anywhere by now, but he knew his brother and knew just where to look first.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Al prodded.

"I could sense your brother wouldn't be a very receptive audience. I feared he'd react the same way my town had and reject me." He knew she had been right in that assumption. Despite all of the horrible, amazing, mind boggling things they had encountered, despite alchemy, Al knew his brother wouldn't bring himself to believe this one thing.

"There you are." Ed's voice called out, like a dagger flung between the two. Al got to his feet.

"Where have you been?" Ed approached him, leaving one hand in his pocket.

"Around." He wasn't about to say it, but Al knew his older sibling had been searching for them. He could sense the lingering tension. Ed was the most stubborn person he knew and he was doing his best to ignore Elly. Elly, meanwhile, got to her feet and smiled again to Al.

"Well, it was nice meeting you." And she took his hand to shake it. After she past the two, Al held up his hand to stop her but Ed placed his own atop it.

"Elly..." Ed called to her, and she stopped, surprised.

"Yes?"

"If you still want to, come with us."