Ch.2, Theory.
Ed slowed down and turned sharply into an ally that seemed inconspicuous, deciding that this would be the best place to hide.
If only for now.
"Damnit..." he muttered crashing onto a small wooden box nearest the back of the small ally, gripping his elbows as he rested them on his knees and buried his head into his folded arms.
He was in what Alphonse would call 'Heavy Thinking' position. Whenever a situation seemed grim or too much to solve with simple means, Ed would sometimes stare downward silently muttering nonsensical words until he found a solution of some kind, most solutions weren't pretty, but they proved effective afterward.
Only problem was no matter how much Ed tried to make heads or tails of this new development; he came up with an absolute zero.
what else can you do when people you know and others you don't know from Adam begin looking at you like a piece of meat?
A good smelling piece of meat...
'What could they have meant by that?' Ed wondered.
Then a reverberating sound of metal crashed somewhere to Ed's right, and he looked up sharply, arms held up in defense in case someone was there to 'attack' him.
His quarry's shadow towered over him and pierced the ally with a devastating roar.
"Meow."
Ed looked up toward the taller wood box next to where he sat and was greeted by two warm looking yellow eyes of a gray coat ally cat.
The kind, if opportunity presented itself, that would wind up in Al's possession.
"Hey there, little guy." Ed said to it with a small smile, deep down he had a soft spot for animals like Alphonse.
"You startled me."
The cat blinked a couple of times before jumping off the front of the box to slink around to where Ed sat and plop itself on his lap.
"che..." Ed huffed before submitting himself to pet the animal.
At least it wasn't acting like Ed was meat, but that didn't lead him any closer to solving his problem.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Hey..."
Ed awoke to a gruff voice, and looked around with hazy eyes as he tried to remember where he was...
His thoughts were interrupted by a hiss from the kitten.
'OH! I must've fallen asleep!'
"Move it, kid, your in my spot." said the hobo looking down at him, eyes set in annoyance as he waited for the blond kid to move.
Ed sheepishly got up after catching his bearings. "Sorry. I didn't realize this seat was yours."
"No big..." the guy said setting a bag of miscellaneous things down, swiping a bottle of gin from its contents. "I'll let you slide as long as I don't catch you on it again."
Ed blinked for a few seconds before realizing something... something that had to do with today's events...
"Uh... old man..."
"What is it, kid?" the guy said after taking a swig from his bottle "Don't tell me someone as young as you is homeless..."
"Wha... no. Actually I was going to ask if anything to you.. like, smelled funny."
The guy fixed Ed with a stare of remorse "Are you tryi'n ta say I stink, Boy?!"
"No! that's not what I mean!" Ed said hastily waving the man's comment off, before looking dejectedly at the ground "...actually, I really don't know what I mean..."
The man huffed before taking another swig. "Kid like you... shouldn't think so badly..."
"Huh?" Ed hummed looking up
"I see it in your eyes, someone as young as you shouldn't have a look like that. Not sure why your out here, but if you carry yourself like you are, like everything is no more than hardship, you might never truly be happy."
Ed realized the man was slowly loosing his sobriety, but his eyes read that of someone who knew what he was talking about.
"I may look like a dirty old hobo to you, but try taking my advice, kid. The world is a corrupt place, there's no looking beyond that. Though if you can; your young, try to take everything you learn in life one step at a time... without fretting over something as trivial as; I don't know, a fight you had with someone or something."
Ed shifted uneasily.
"Cause in the end all those things become history as the sun rises to start a new day." The man turned to look at the reddened sky. "Even now, the sun sets to start a new cycle. everything that occurred this day will become a memory."
Ed too, looked up at the same sky, a hue of purples and oranges.
"Just make sure the memories you keep, are ones you never regret."
It was strange, although it was ranting; Ed couldn't help but feel that maybe what the man had said held some sort of truth... or something close.
Either case, he felt a little better than he had all day.
Speaking of day...
"OH geeze! would you happen to know the time?"
"I passed the bakery a few minutes ago, the clock there said seven twenty."
'crap!' "Thanks!" Ed waved slightly before running off to the streets.
Back in the ally, the man blinked a few times before smelling the air around him.
"Wow, something really does smell..."
T.B.C.