(Disclaimer: The Fullmetal Alchemist Characters belong solely to Hiromu Arakawa and any other Fullmetal Alchemist makers I don't know about, but Patricia Kansas and the other unknown characters I am writing about belong to me. If this disclaimer is wrong, then please do not sue me.)

KChan: Sheesh, I haven't updated for so long. I only didn't update this story because the original fullmetal alchemist was complete. I didn't want to be off history too much, so I waited until I had the heart to write it. This is a short chapter basically because of writer's block. I will update this if you guys want me to. Please review still.

Chapter 9: First Job Together

Patricia and Edward entered the cafeteria, which was flooding with military soldiers trying to get their breakfast. Edward was going to run in the middle of the line, but Patricia grabbed him by the head roughly.

"Wait in line," said Patricia seriously. Edward groaned and gave a nod. They went to the end of the line, but to Patricia's disgust it was none other than Jacob in front of them. Jacob smiled back at Patricia and asked, "Decided to wait in line, Patricia?" Patricia nodded.

Jacob looked down at Edward and grimaced.

"I see that you have also brought your new partner," said Jacob with his eyebrow twitching. Patricia nodded and said, "We have to stay together after all." Jacob clenched his fist.

Jacob smirked at Edward and said, "We didn't have a proper greeting before. My name is Jacob Kimblee, Steel Wing Alchemist, age twenty-five."

Edward held his hand to him and said, "Edward Elric, Full metal Alchemist…number two, age fifteen." Edward had a hard time saying number two for he was still in denial.

Jacob chuckled and said, "Nice to meet you Nigou." Edward flinched. Edward glared at Jacob and screamed, "What's with the Nigou?"

Jacob crossed his arms and said, "Between Patricia and you, Patricia is more deserving of the name Full metal Alchemist, so I refuse to call you by her title. I will only call you Nigou, which means number two." Edward growled and tried his very hardest not to punch Jacob.

Patricia could see how angry Edward was and glared at Jacob.

"Call him what you want, but try to keep it to yourself. I hate people like you the most," said Patricia angrily. Jacob became stiff as a statue as the word "hate" repeated in his head.

"Time to move up," said Patricia as Edward and her followed the line pass Jacob, who seemed like a new decoration for the cafeteria.

They soon reached the front of the food counter, but the soldier before them was arguing with the brown haired cafeteria guy, who looked like he was about to fall asleep. Edward crossed his arms impatiently and said, "Just get your food already."

The soldier looked down at Edward and said, "Shut up, you short Nigou." Edward immediately jumped up and kicked him in the face causing him to collide into the ground.

"Who are you calling a Short Nigou that can't be seen by a magnifying glass?" screamed Edward. Patricia shook her head and said, "He didn't say that."

Patricia then looked at the cafeteria guy and said, "If you were tired Sloth, then you should have stayed in your room." Edward looked at Patricia in surprise.

"This guy is Sloth?" asked Edward in disbelief. Patricia nodded and added, in a low whisper, "A Homunculus." The cafeteria guy, revealed to be Sloth, shook his head and beamed a smile at Patricia.

"I'm not tired at all, Patricia," said Sloth. Sloth immediately served Patricia three slices of pancakes with syrup.

"Please enjoy," said Sloth with a lot more energy. Patricia nodded as she took the plate. She looked at Edward and said, "Order before the soldier you attacked decides to kill you." Edward nodded and asked Sloth for some pancakes like Patricia. Sloth stared at Edward and seemed to go into a dream like state.

"Is this the Nigou I heard about, who is your new partner?" asked Sloth tiredly. Patricia nodded. Sloth stared at Edward with tired eyes. Edward began to wonder what happened to Sloth's previous cheery mood. Sloth placed half a pancake with no syrup on Edward's plate and said, in a bored tone, "Please enjoy." Edward stared at his mini breakfast and clenched his fist.

This guy is clearly making fun of me.

Edward and Patricia went to an empty table with their respective breakfasts. Patricia grabbed two slices of pancakes from her plate and placed them on Edward's plate. Edward stared at his increased breakfast.

"Thanks," said Edward mildly surprised.

"No problem," she said as she began to chew on her single pancake.

"Patricia, my darling!"

Patricia flinched when she heard Hiroki's voice echoing through the cafeteria.

Hiroki pranced to Patricia and Edward's table. He smiled at Patricia with sparkles all around his body.

"Why are you sitting all alone here, my darling?" asked Hiroki as he looked down at Patricia, who was trying her best to ignore him. Edward glared at Hiroki and screamed, "I'm here too idiot!" Hiroki glared at Edward.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't notice you, Mini Nigou," said Hiroki in a rude manner. Edward was about to attack Hiroki, but Patricia stomped on Edward's foot under the table causing him to cringe.

While Edward was twitching in pain, Patricia looked at Hiroki and asked, "What do you want?" Hiroki beamed at her and said, "The same as always, my darl…"

"Drop dead," Patricia said before Hiroki can answer. Hiroki chuckled and said, "Don't be like that." Hiroki encircled his arm around her shoulder.

"You know that I am much better than that Nigou, my…"

Before Hiroki could say another word, Patricia stabbed his hand with her fork causing Hiroki to cry out in pain. Patricia shoved him away as his hand bled and said, "Go to the infirmary, Hiroki." Hiroki ran off gripping his hand.

Patricia tossed her fork aside and looked at Edward, who was staring at her in disbelief. Patricia gave out a sigh and said, "Don't let what the others say bother you. Believe it or not, they teased me a lot when I first entered here." Edward blinked in confusion.

"They called you Nigou too?" asked Edward. Patricia shook her head.

"They called me short, shrimp, mouse, bug, and I can go on. They were pretty harsh on me," said Patricia. Patricia smirked at Edward and said, "But I was able to surpass them, so beat them Edward." Edward stared at Patricia and realized that she was trying to cheer him up. Edward gave a small blush and looked down shyly.

"Thanks," he whispered causing Patricia to giggle.

When they were finished eating, Patricia and Edward left the cafeteria. As they walked down the hall, Edward examined each of the doors more closely.

"Where is that door?" Edward said to himself.

"Did you say something?" asked Patricia. Edward shook his head.

They soon reached a door with a different alchemy circle upon it. Edward examined it and sighed when he realized that it wasn't the door he was looking for. He looked at Patricia and asked, "So why are we here?"

"This door is like a mailing system. All I have to do is activate the circle upon it and it will spit out a request that was bond to it," said Patricia. Edward stared at the door in amazement.

"Why would the military create something like this?" asked Edward. Patricia smirked as she rubbed her hands together.

"It was to protect the privacy of others and to prevent the amateur alchemists from getting high grade jobs," said Patricia. Patricia clapped her hands and placed them onto the door causing the symbol to glow. As the symbol glowed, a wooden plank emerged from the middle and fell to the ground.

Patricia removed her hands from the door allowing the circle's light to subside. She smirked as she picked up the plank of wood. She showed it to Edward.

"This job request is of my level," said Patricia happily. Edward looked at the plank and saw that it had some writing on it.

"So the request is on there?" asked Edward. Patricia nodded and handed it to Edward.

"Go ahead and read our first job together," said Patricia. Edward nodded and looked down at the writing of the wood. Edward was silent making Patricia confused.

"Edward?"

Edward looked up at Patricia nervously and admitted that he couldn't read the hand writing. Patricia groaned and yanked it out of his hand.

"I guess someone from the future can't read past writing," said Patricia annoyed. Edward groaned feeling insulted.

Patricia looked down at the plank and read it out loud for Edward to hear.

"There have been rumors about terrorists from Xing smuggling in illegal weapons around the Central area of Kansai District. You need to investigate the rumor and if it is true, apprehend the terrorists."

"That doesn't sound very hard," said Edward. Patricia sighed and looked at Edward.

"This is only a high level job because of the illegal weapons. The illegal weapons might be alchemy related and terrorists are a big deal," said Patricia. Edward smirked and asked, "What's so dangerous about the weapons using alchemy?" Patricia glared at Edward making him cringe.

Patricia pulled out her gun and pointed it at Edward making him gasp in surprise.

"What did I say?" asked Edward in a panic. Patricia redirected her gun and fired it. The bullet flew passed Edward. Edward looked back at the bullet. Patricia then snapped her fingers. The minute she snapped, the bullet glowed brightly and burst. Where the bullet was before, was now a wall of ice. Edward stared at it in shock.

"What did you do?" asked Edward. Patricia opened her gun and pulled out one of the bullets. She showed it to Edward and said, "This bullet has an alchemy circle on it. It is used for alchemy as an emergency measure. All you have to do is fire it and focus your alchemy on it. Depending on your specialty, it will take its form. You usually need a glove to use the alchemy bullets, but I'm different as you can tell."

Edward stared at the bullet and realized that he saw it before in the future when exploring the ruins.

So the bullets were used for Alchemy.

Edward shook his head and looked at Patricia.

"So the illegal weapons might use greater alchemy than this?" asked Edward. Patricia nodded and added, "The weapons could be great enough to destroy the country." Edward clenched his fist.

Could the terrorists be the reason why this military base was destroyed in the future?

Patricia began to walk down the hall and said, "We should get going and if the rumors are true, I might have to ask some help from an acquaintance." Edward nodded as he followed her. Edward suddenly realized something and looked at Patricia.

"What acquaintance?" asked Edward. Patricia groaned and said, "Someone I rather not meet." Edward stared at Patricia wondering if her acquaintance was really a bad person.