Hey Everyone, new chapter and new character profile on the bottom! I'm going to try and keep this brief by saying that... I really hate my brain sometimes as while I was writing this chapter before I went to work, my brain literally went "Hey you wanna know what would make a good new story idea? That you can also incorporate one from that weird dream you had?" Then I went "DAMN IT" And now I'm writing it on the side... along with many MANY other stories I'm already working on... I just can't stop...

I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, but I do pretty much own the Original Characters in this story as well as the plot of it as well!

Please Read and Review (The last one is pretty much the life blood for all my stories honestly)

Chapter 3

Maria was ecstatic when she ran into her home, which was only a nine minute walk from her grandparent's home. The first thing she did was run up to her room and grab a backpack, figuring it was the easiest thing she could use for adventures. First thing she did was dump out the school stuff and started packing some cloths she knew she would want or need.

"Let's see, clothes check! Money? I'll just grab some quickly… Food? Same as the money one… OH I should also take my book of plants!" Maria chimed as she ran to her small bookshelf and pulled out that one particular book, said to contain information on all plant materials.

"Maria…" The voice of Joseph caught Maria off guard as she stumbled with her book in hand.

"Oh, hi Jo-Jo!" Maria grinned as she stood straight with her book in hand. Joseph narrowed his eyes at his sister.

"What are you planning?"

"Just a camping trip, nothing wrong with that," Maria smiled as she walked back to her backpack and placed the book down into the bag. Joseph frowned, not believing her in the slightest.

"You're going with Tan-Lan aren't you?"

"Why would I go with someone I don't know?" Maria asked tilting her head innocently, her smile still present. That was how Joseph knew she was lying.

"Maria, no."

"You can't tell me what to do Jo-Jo!" Maria chirped as she picked up her half full bag and started to walk out.

"You know when mom and dad are not home, and grandma or grandpa aren't with us I'm in charge!" This caused Maria to pout and glare at her older brother.

"Why can't you all just let me do what I want for once?!"

"Because it's dangerous and you're only 9 years old!"

"So?! I'm a big girl!"

"No you're not! You have to be 13 to be considered one!"

"Grandpa was only eleven when he began his travels with uncle Al! That's not much older than me!"

"Those where different times, and you are not going and that is final!" Joseph shouted, causing Maria to fall silent. The dark blond haired girl then looked down and have said hair cover her blue eyes. Joseph noticed this, as well as the quiet sound of sniffling and choked back sobs coming from his sisters shaking form. "Oh no… Maria…"

"W-Why… d-do y-you all… h-hate my dr-dreams?" Maria sobbed as she slunk down into a squatting position and cried into her legs.

"Maria… that's not-"

"Yes it is!" Maria shouted, turning her head up and showing her tear ridden face with anger written on it.

"Maria-"

"NO I'M NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO YOUR DUMB REASONS! You're not a big boy since you're not 13 your self! So I don't have to listen to you!" Maria shouted as she jumped back up and ran right past her brother, who let out a yelp of surprise as she b-lined for the kitchen, stuffed as many things she could grab into her bag then ran out the door. As the nine year old ran she wiped the stray tears from her face with her arm, her only hope at that moment was to reach the train station before the train passed along with her ticket to an adventure at the same time.

...

Tan-Lan sat on a bench at the station waiting for the train to come around. On his way over to the station he stopped and… picked up, some food that he packed away into his bag again.

I really don't like taking it… but I couldn't exchange my currency due to the Xing guards looking for me there…. Tan-Lan thought to himself as he eyed his bag he had sitting next to him, and his hand tracing over his now exposed bracer… that held the Philosopher's stone in the center of it. The crimson stone held a soft glow when his finger's neared it, only to stop when he looked down at it.

I still don't get what's so special about this stone though… Is it some kind of valuable material used to appease the last Emperor? Tan-Lan thought to himself, mostly as he really never paid attention much to history… or Ed's story at all.

"Heey!" the voice of Maria snapped Tan-Lan out of his thoughts. The Xing boy turned his head to see the blond running up, panting a little as she did. The closer she got, the more he saw how red her eyes looked as well as the dried up tear stains on her face.

"Did something happen?" Tan-Lan asked when she finally got to his bench, practically out of breath by then.

"Oh just an argument with dumb Jo-Jo," Maria replied, looking off into the distance for the train. Tan-Lan frowned, feeling like it was a little more than an argument, but choose to keep quiet and leave it as is.

"You sure you still wanna travel with me?"Tan-Lan asked, hoping the girl would realize it's actually not such a good idea to travel with him.

"I'm sure!" Maria chirped, pulling up a happy face once again as she looked over to the prince. "Besides I've always wanted to travel around!"

"I… see…" Tan-Lan murmured and looked away, not knowing how else to respond to the young girl as he's always had to deal with people older than him on a daily basis. Soon the train came around and Maria started to bounce a bit where she stood, while Tan-Lan looked on rather impassively.

"This is so exciting! Do you have the tickets?" Maria asked, her smile getting big while the Xingese boy looked at her with a quirked brow.

"Who said anything about tickets?" Tan-Lan asked earning a confused look from the Amestrian girl. As soon as the train stopped the boy stood up, pulled his backpack up and pulled Maria with him to a cart that didn't have people on it. Both unaware of Joseph running onto the platform after them with a light bag of his own on his own on his back.

Why the hell am I doing this?! Joseph asked himself as he chased after his sister and the foreigner she was with. Earlier when his sister ran out of the house he panicked and ran into his own room, packing a smaller bag with only a few pairs of clothes and art supplies, not thinking it wouldn't be very necessary to bring much else, besides the money he had been saving up that of course. The young painter saw Tan-Lan dragging his sister with him to the luggage cart and internally knew then… They were sneaking onto the train. Internally fearful of this Joseph ran straight ahead in hopes to catch them before the train takes off… and sending him on an unwanted adventure himself.

...

Selim was cleaning around his, and his mother's home. It was smaller than what he only faintly remembered from when he was a child, but it was more than enough for the two. Sure they had help to clean and prepare everything, since his mother became bed ridden nearly two years ago now, but Selim always felt… a bit of pride in his work.

"Young master…" One of the two helpers of the house called to the young man. Selim looked up from his work with a small smile.

"Yes Edgar?" Selim asked as he stood up, brushing his hands off onto his pants as he did.

"The Ishvalan has come…" Edgar spoke, holding back his distaste for said race in the presence of his employer. Selim however sighed as he still heard the smallest amount of venom used in the man's speech.

"I really wish you weren't so racist…" Selim sighed and walked from his work to speak with Ja'hal.

Down in the living room Ja'hal made himself comfortable on the couch, his uniform traded for his comfortable civilian clothing.

"I wasn't expecting to see you so soon," Selim announced as he walked down the stairs. Ja'hal looked over to the black haired young man and smiled.

"I'm simply enjoying my day off. I also happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to see how your morning has been," the Ishvalan said as the black haired man sat on a chair across from him.

"It's going good, despite the fact I'm going to have to get ready for work soon… Oh I almost forgot, do you want some tea or coffee?"

"Tea is much more preferred."

"I'll go make some then… if Edgar comes in and gives you a hard time let me know alright."

"I will be sure to do so," Ja'hal smiled. As soon as Selim went into the kitchen Ja'hal took on a thoughtful look.

It's strange… not only is there a bad feeling on the wind… but I find it still weird, how Selim barely looks a day over twenty despite being in his forties…. Ja'hal thought knowing for a fact that Selim was once an assistant to Furer Mustang before Kenton took over, and was also the one who helped both him and Kenton settle into working with the Military… yet his looks haven't changed at all since then.

"Oh Ja'hal!" a woman's voice caught the Assistant's attention. Standing on the staircase was a woman in her early thirties, wearing an apron over her clothing and a bucket of cleaning supplies in her hands.

"Greetings Madame Snow," Ja'hal greeted causing the woman's cheeks to turn a shade of pink along with a frown.

"I thought you agreed to stop calling me by my last name."

"I apologize then, Madison," Ja'hal responded as he looked away from the female help of the home.

"It's fine… I just get annoyed with people calling me by my last name…" Madison sighed as she fixed her hair bun, after reaching the bottom of the steps and had set the cleaning supplies down first.

"I believe I remember the story behind that," Ja'hal commented, still avoiding looking at the woman, who held a soft smile on her lips as she gazed over at the man.

"I'm glad then…" Madison started only to stop when she saw Selim come walking in.

"The tea's on the stove right now. Oh hey Madison can I ask a big favor from you?" Selim asked smiling up at the woman who sighed.

"Whatever you need young Master…"

"Could you bring Mother up her lunch?" Selim asked, coaxing a small smile out of the woman.

"Sure thing," Madison replied and started to make her way into the kitchen only to stop and look at Ja'hal for a bit. "Talk to you more later?"

"Perhaps," the Ishvalan said, a small smile gracing his face as the woman nodded and went into the kitchen. Selim smirked at the exchange and took his seat back.

"One of these days you two are going to get past flirting and start dating," Ja'hal straightened up a bit at Selim's words and pulled up a straight face.

"It wasn't flirting, we were merely having a discussion."

"Sure, you where. That's why you both agreed on a date," Selim responded with a continued smirk on his face. Ja'hal simply looked away.

"Please, you're acting childish right now. We were simply planning to have a social expo-"

"Ja'hal it's written on your face," Selim grinned as Ja'hal turned a light shade of red but kept up a blank expression.

The mental age of a teenager, mixed with forty years of experience and the body of a twenty year old… I swear you are a hassle to deal with.

...

Tan-Lan had gotten them both onto the train, illegally much to Maria's discomfort, and was setting up a nice area where they wouldn't be spotted for if someone were to walk into the compartment to check for stowaways.

"Why didn't we get tickets?"

"Well for one thing… I wasn't able to exchange my currency before hand. The other thing is, this saves a bit of money and it adds more excitement for the trip," Tan-Lan explained as he moved a few boxes carefully around the area they were sitting in. Maria thought this through for a bit before realizing the Xingese boy was right on the last two accounts. Before she could speak about this however the sound of someone climbing into the cart caught both of the runaway kid's attention. Tan-Lan acted quickly and covered Maria's mouth as he pulled her into hiding. Wanting to protest a bit to what was going on, Maria stopped when she heard footsteps walking around the cart.

"Maria?" the familiar voice of Joseph called out causing Maria to bite her lips and push herself further into hiding. Tan-Lan however quirked a brow as he didn't know why Maria wanted to hide so much from her elder sibling. Lifting his hand from the girls mouth the prince stood up and went to greet Joseph.

"Hey, decided to join the party?" Joseph frowned when he saw Tan-Lan coming out of hiding.

"Is my sister back there as well?"

"Dunno, she would have come out if she was," Tan-Lan shrugged, figuring it would be best to tell a few fibs.

"After what happened back at home? No, no she wouldn't," Joseph responded, earning a quirked brow from Tan-Lan. The prince then turned to where Maria was, wanting to know the story.

"What the hell happened?" Maria flinched in her hiding spot while Joseph glared at both the Prince as well as where said prince was looking.

"Maria, come out now."

"NO!" the girl's loud voice caused both boy's to jump from the fact the yell echoed in the compartment.

"Shhhh, not so loud. Do you want us to get caught?" Tan-Lan hissed, covering his ears and the sleeve over his bracer being moved to expose the cool silver.

"No… but I'm not going back with stupid Jo-Jo!" Maria exclaimed, quieter than the first time but still rather loud.

"Maria! Look this is stupid, so get out of there and let's go home now!" Joseph commanded and before Maria could fight with him again the train whistle sounded and the door to the compartment was closed. Joseph's heart practically stopped for a few seconds as the cart was jerked forward slightly… signifying the train was moving now. "Oh no…"

"Oh great… fun ruiner Jo-Jo is coming with!" Maira groaned as Joseph slowly began to panic more at his situation and Tan-Lan just sighed and made himself comfortable.

"Oh… NO! Someone get me out of here!"

...

Keil was sitting in his designated room of the base in their research lab, shaking with guilt as he did. The group was a bit ahead of schedule in the circle and would be moving onto the internal design used for the stabilization of the circle… and the clear objective of it would also be made should anyone look down from the sky at it.

"Hey Keil, Marcus is cooking for dinner," the female researcher spoke through the greying haired man's door. Keil remained silent as he stared at the door, guilt pulling to much at him to cause him to be hungry. "Keil, please… this is the fourth day you skipped eating. If you don't come out and eat with the rest of us, I will come in and force feed you."

"Alicia… please just leave me be… I'll come out in a bit," Keil called weakly to the woman. Alicia huffed and walked away from the door. Keil held his hand up and stared as it shook from his guilt.

I can't do this any more… Keil thought frowning as his fingers traced over his bed sheets.

...

Joseph was shaking as he finally took to sitting with the other two stowaways. It was a quiet trip after Joseph seemed to have a panic attack earlier.

"So… First time riding a train?" Tan-Lan asked the two Amestrians, showing he was the only one seemingly comfortable in their situation.

"Yup. Dad get's motion sickness so we don't get to travel a lot like this," Maria chirped, relieved that they were getting out of the uncomfortable silence.

"We're getting on the next train back to Resembool though…" Joseph muttered from his huddled position and shaking. Maria pouted and glared at her brother while Tan-Lan shrugged.

"The two of you can if you want, I've still got a lot of places to see."

"Oh speaking of that, do you know where this train is going?" Maria asked, curious on their destination and also to see if she can hear of the foreigner's plans. Tan-Lan instantly flinched, turned his head and felt like he was sweating bullets.

"I… I have no idea really…." Tan-Lan responded, his hand rubbing against the back of his neck as he felt the gazes of the siblings.

"So… wait you're just traveling aimlessly?" Joseph asked, narrowing his eyes over at the possible teen.

"Give me a break I didn't think this whole thing through and I can't read Amestrian!" Tan-Lan blurted before he paused and realized he gave off a little more information then he should have.

"You can't?" Maria asked in surprise. Joseph on the other hand just quirked a brow at the Xing boy.

"N-No… I can't… I only learned how to speak it I had trouble learning to read and write it…" Tan-Lan responded as he once again turned his head away from the siblings, this time out of shame.

"Well I don't even know the Xing Language," Maria piped up with a smile.

"I wouldn't expect you to…" Tan-Lan and Joseph both said at the same time causing both to look at each other, both having slightly annoyed looks when they did. Maria couldn't help but giggle at the two boy's faces as it seemed like they took to a glaring contest.

It took a while but when the train finally stopped Tan-Lan stood up and hurried to the door, motioning for the two others to follow him. Joseph sighed but followed as Maria practically skipped over and out the opened compartment door with the boys.

"Finally fresh air," Tan-Lan sighed in content as he stretched a bit after leaving the confines of the train.

"Yeah it's nice… Now let's go find a train back home Maria," Joseph stated as he grabbed his sister's arm and started pulling her. The girl protested and fought to get away.

"NO NO NO NO NO! I'M NOT GOING BACK, I'M FINALLY GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!" Maria cried as she tried to get out of her brother's grip.

"Maria! Stop it, we're going home. Mom, dad, grandpa and grandma must be worried right now!"

"I don't CARE, I just wanna go on an adventure!"

"Maria, you HAVE to listen to me!"

"No I don't! You said big kids are thirteen years or older and you're only 12!" Maria screamed as she scratched at her brother's hand. Joseph hissed at this and let go, only to have his sister run over to Tan-Lan. "Besides he's probably older than you!"

"I did turn fourteen two weeks ago…" Tan-Lan mused, not really wanting to be dragged into the family problems but seemed to be anyways.

"See he's a big kid so I can listen to him!"

"But you hardly know him!"

"Your brother has a point there."

"So?! You're the one letting me follow my dreams!"

"That is also true I guess…"

"Pick a side already!" Joseph exclaimed while Tan-Lan just raised his hands.

"Hey I want no part of this family squabble anyways. I'm just pointing out facts right now!"

"But you won't let mean old Jo-Jo take me home when the Adventure barely began will you?" Maria asked pulling out the kicked puppy look to Tan-Lan, who was once again feeling like he really had no idea what to do.

"Maria, don't make the stranger who eats a lot feel uncomfortable and let's go home already!" Joseph exclaimed while Tan-Lan was pretty much stuck in the middle of this whole fight, feeling like an awkward third wheel… that is till someone from the station finally noticed their fighting and came to investigate.

"What are you kids doing back here?!" The worker exclaimed startling the three kids.

"Nice going you two, run!" Tan-Lan commanded as he grabbed the sibling's wrists and dragged them out of there, none of them wanting to get in more trouble than they might already be in.

Alright here is the next profile for you people:

Joseph Roy Reinhart:

Age: 12

Birthday: December 31st (Capricorn)

Favorite food: Home-cooked beef stew

Least Favorite Food: Omelettes

Family: Edward Elric (Grandfather), Winry Rockbell/Elric (Grandmother), Aleister Elric (Uncle), Gabe Elric (Uncle), Nina Elric (Mother), Kevin Reinhart (father), Maria Reinhart (sister), Alphonse Elric (Great Uncle), Mei Chang/Elric (Great Aunt), Ya-Ting Elric (Cousin)

Dreams/Goals: To be an artist, to get his sister to stop messing with his painting times and to be someone worth looking up to.

Talents: Very observant of his surroundings, painting skills, good memory.

Weaknesses: Often gets tunnel vision, kinda out of shape (only get's exercise from chasing his sister).