"I'm glad Colonel Mustang hasn't had much for us to do lately." Alphonse told his brother and Chanticleer while they found themselves once again walking to Yoyo manor to visit their friends.

Me – Lucus, shut up.

"It's nice to take time off just to be with friends."

"Yeah, ya know I think they need to paint the house blue." Chanticleer thought.

"What's wrong with red?" Ed asked.

"Most brick is naturally red, lets show some originality"

"HEY LOOK!"

Al pointed to something from the corner of the house and ran to it.

"What is it?"

Ed squinted.

"I think it's a kitty tail. I don't know why he gets all excited about every cat we find because he can't keep it."

"KITTY!"

Eyes closed with delight Al rounded the corner, scooped up the cat and cuddled it with all he was worth.

"Well hello you fuzzy feline!"

"………Al………would you mind, um, putting me down?"

"Huh?"

Alphonse looked down at a very surprised and extremely confused Clen.

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

"OWCH! I said put down not drop."

The second Al discovered he'd been victim of a serious case of mistaken identity he freaked out and dropped Clen.

"Well, I, uh, you see, I thought, um, your tail, I…"

"Yeah I get it."

Really desperate to bring the attention from his mistake he did his best to change the subject.

"Well, I-if I were ever t-to find a kitty would you, you, would you take care of it?" he somehow stuttered.

"Maybe, just try to pay more attention. That hug nearly gave me a heart attack."

"No, no." Ed butted in. "Yer supposed to say I probably lost a life."

"What?"

"You know, people are always saying cats have nine lives."

"Please, no cat jokes."

"No problem, where's everyone else?" Chanty asked.

"They're in the backyard. Mark set up a bunch of sun umbrellas to the east side where we'd be most visible to anyone looking closely enough."

"So what were you doing?"

"Me? Well I was…"

From the back yard they heard someone yell,

"LAMINOL GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!"

"I can't help it, I'm sorry!"

Quickly everyone went to investigate and Clen was thinking, best saved-by-the-bell situation I've ever been in.

"Go inside and get that out of your teeth."

When rounding the corner Lame stomped past them looking very irritated as though something simple had been made out of as a big deal. After he heard the door slam did Ed consider it safe to ask,

"What happened?"

"Lame was eating grass."

"You're kidding."

"Ya can't really blame him, he's now a horse after all."

"Kun Kun!"

"Can we move one of these umbrellas to the other side so we can get some shade?" Annie complained. "I don't really care for being stuck in the bright sunlight, it hurts my eyes."

"What are you talking about?" Goxlin mocked. "Sunlight is no problem so I don't know what your problem is." He turned toward where the sunlight was the warmest and opened his eyes wide just to be a pain.

"Gox shut up."

"So what's the pleasure this time?" Ren asked Ed, Al and Chanty.

"News from Mustang isn't exactly the greatest." The Dawn said as he sat down next to Brody in the grass. "Only one of the four soldiers sent to that town were we found you came back. He said one was taken out by Scar and the other two were taken by someone or someones when they tried digging around the town for clues about Caradon before going to the mansion to investigate."

"What'd it do?"

"Excuse me?"

Everyone (Except Gox and Dixie who had become more interested in playing with Chanticleer's feathers) looked at Lucus.

"What'd it do?" he asked again.

"What'd what do?"

"The gate."

"What's the gate got to do with anything?" Al asked.

"He said they were going to arrest the gate so I was curious about what it did."

"You idiot! I said in-vest-ih-gate not arrest the gate!"

"No need to shout I'm not as think as you stupid I am."

Chanticleer looked as though strangling Lucus would be very appealing.

"ANYWAY! The only one that returned had a message that said not to expect finding Caradon at the mansion because 'I assure you wont find me their again and anyone that tries to follow me to Lod Lilm at Catercaller will end up dead so don't even try.'"

"Why on earth would he give a clue about where he's headed?" Mark asked baffled.

"Probably because he's so sure he'll get away again or it's just a decoy." Luke said.

"I'll go with the decoy, because whatever he's making reference to is something the military has never heard of." Ed brought to the attention of his friends. "It's probably just a way of saying, haha nice try but I got away again."

"Hey, Lucus. You were going to tell us about someone's definition of a gelding earlier and now that Lame's not here, what was it?" Clen asked.

"Oooo! Yeah I remember, but I, (snicker) now I'm not sure if I can (giggle) say it without laughing."

"Come on, you can do it." Luke encouraged him.

"The girl said, heeheehee, she said that a gelding was, (snicker). Ok deep breath…she said a gelding was a horse that's lost its jingle bells."

Everyone was on the ground laughing. Except of course Dixie who was still too busy playing with Chanticleer's feathers to care.

"So what'd I miss?"

Lame returned and was trying to pick something out from the back of his mouth and his presence made everyone laugh harder.

"Did I miss something important?"

After everyone was at the point of breathing normally they filled him in about the situation and explained to him about Scar. (of course leaving out the part about why they were laughing) It was a mutual agreement to those that didn't know about Scar already that he didn't sound like a guy to anger and were glad they weren't State Alchemists but worried about their friends that were.

"Before we forget, Mustang wants to talk with you about what happened with Caradon tomorrow." Al said.

"All of us going to Central?" Annie asked sounding a tad bit nervous.

"I guess we could ask him about coming here when we go back but otherwise yes, all of you will go with us to Central." Ed finished.

Not that was out of the way the laziness of the afternoon dragged on with simplicity and relaxation, well, except for the Dawn. This happened for two reasons, 1, Dixie playing with his feathers was getting a little annoying and 2, he couldn't stop thinking about that place Caradon said he would be. Lod Lilm at Catercaller? It has to be some kind of riddle, what kind of place would have a name like that? Then again it could also be the name of his base, if so the guy needed to develop a more creative imagination.

Me – up next! Mustang questions the new friends about Caradon and the weird name of that place Caradon will bug the daylights out of Chanty until he figures it out. Which he will and it wont be very pretty.

Chibi me – What have I told you about giving away clues! You always give them a little too much!

Me – (holds up caramel) And what have I told you about if you don't like it write your own story. Besides, they know he's going to figure something out but not what it is or how it ties into anything else.