Disclaimer - Do I really have to put this in every chapter? *sigh* Fine I don't own anything.

A/N - I only changed one sentence. Can you spot it?

Edward collapsed onto the couch in his and Alphonse's dorm. Finally, after a full month of non-stop searching, the brothers were finished with their survey mission.

"Come on, Brother." Alphonse urged said brother to stand. "After lunch, you need to write your final report for Colonel Mustang."

Edward scowled at his superior's name, but got up anyways. "So what did you make, Al?" His nose started twitching at the wonderful smell coming from the stove.

"Nothing special, just some leftover stew that we made last night." Alphonse answered as he sat a bowl in front of a drooling Edward. He laughed when the stew disappeared in less than thirty seconds.

After lunch was over, Edward dragged himself to his desk to write the report while Alphonse cleaned the kitchen.

Mission Report

Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist

Superior Officer

Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist

This must be the lamest mission you have ever sent me on, you know that? Well, I found out that the East Section has more birds as pets than I thought would be possible. One house alone hade thirty species of the things, and over a hundred birds. When I asked why there were so many, the guy got all defensive and said that there was no law saying how many he could have, and the military should keep their noses in their own affairs. Needless to say, I was not going to get any information out of that weirdo, so we left him alone.

When Al and I got to the North Section, we quickly found out that this is the more snobbish end of the city. Those who did not immediately slam their door in our faces, told us that they either didn't own any animals, or that the military had no rights to be asking about their precious Feefee, or whatever they came up with for their poor dog.

I hope you appreciate the trouble I had with pulling Al away from the West Section. Almost every house there had a cat. Most of which are either about to have a litter of kittens, or are weaning a litter and are looking for homes for them. I think that if he had tear ducts, Al would have been bawling his eyes out by the time we left that section because wouldn't let him have any of those damned kittens! Wipe that stupid grin off your face, bastard, I just know that you are getting some sort of sick pleasure out of all this! I swear that I have heard some suspicious meowing coming out of Al's armor the past week, but I haven't found the damned thing yet.

The South Section seems to be the poorer end of the city. Not very many of the houses there gave pets, and those that do, have the oddest assortment that I have ever seen. One of them had a really big dog that, for some reason, would not stop licking me. They also had some sort of lizard that they let run all over the house. Another house had snakes. Can you believe that? Gross! They also raised mice and rabbits to feed the snakes. How creepy is that?

All in all, there was absolutely no indication that any of them are manufacturing chimeras. Thanks again for the useless mission.

"There, done." Edward grumbled as he folded and sealed the report. He looked at the clock. "Come on Al, if we leave now, we might get our next mission before the evening trains leave."

"You don't know if our next mission will be out of Central, Brother. He might give us another mission in the city." Alphonse lectured as he waited for Edward to put his cloak on.

"Naw, I'm pretty sure that everyone back at HQ is getting tired of dealing with me after a whole month." Edward replied with a smirk. He followed his exasperated brother out the door.

* * * * With the guys at HQ * * * *

Mustang watched everyone as they worked at their respective desks, and his eyes fell onto one particular desk that was so rarely used. 'I really should make Fullmetal do his own paperwork.' Mustang thought to himself. The doors flung open and as if he had been summoned, Edward strolled into the room with a deep scowl on his face. 'Then again, maybe not.'

"Why Fullmetal, I'm shocked." Mustang gushed with no small amount of sarcasm. "You really can tell time! You are at least a whole five minutes early for our scheduled meeting."

If looks could kill, Mustang would be a crispy critter right where he stood. If not for Alphonse's restraining hand and his muttered "Brother, not now." Edward may have done something stupid.

Edward growled to himself, but otherwise calmly followed the Colonel into his office with Alphonse right behind him. Mustang merely lifted an eyebrow when he saw the younger brother sit on the couch next to the elder one.

"I believe that you have a report to give me?"

Edward sighed dramatically as he got up and handed the report over. He then plopped back on the couch and watched as Mustang read.

Mustang had to read the report twice to make sure he didn't miss anything. "Really, Fullmetal, you have got to improve your handwriting." This earned him another dark look from the boy. "This is supposed to be an official report. There is almost as much complaining as useful information."

"I wasn't complaining about nothing. I just wrote it the way it happened." Edward said in his own defense when he noticed Alphonse trying to smother his giggles. He slouched down further on the couch with a sulky expression on his face.

Mustang smirked at the rare show of childishness. "Here is your next mission, Fullmetal." He tossed a folder at the elder brother.

Edward caught the folder with ease and opened it. Alphonse leaned over his shoulder and read the file. Both of them perked up when they read where they were going.

"Brother look! East City isn't very far from Resembool! Maybe we can stop and see Winry and Granny Pinako before we come back to Central." Alphonse turned to the Colonel and did his best to give him the impression of his "puppy eyes." He brought his hands together and asked in his most hopeful voice. "You wouldn't mind would you Colonel?" (A/N - I don't actually know anything about East City, but I needed somewhere close to Resembool.)

Mustang resisted the strong temptation to roll his eyes at yet another childish display. "Of course not Alphonse. We wouldn't want Fullmetal to pass on the chance of getting a checkup on his automail now would we? After all, it would be a shame if his arm or leg were to fall apart due to a lack of maintenance care."

"Thank you Colonel!" Alphonse gushed. "Don't worry; I'll make sure that Brother gets a checkup."

"You do know that I am still in the room, right?" Edward growled without taking his eyes off the report.

"Really? I didn't even see you. You are almost invisible when you sit next to your brother like that." Mustang almost laughed when Edward exploded.

"Who are you calling small enough to be a germ's pet?"

Alphonse did laugh as he held Edward back from attacking his superior officer.

"You boys better go back to the dorms and pack so that you will be at the station in time to make the evening train. It will take four days to get to East City. Try to complete this mission with minimal damage this time please? It makes me look bad to always have to take money out of your research fund to repair half a town wherever you go."

Edward merely threw Mustang a death glare before he urged his brother toward the door.

"Bye Colonel." Alphonse waved as they left the room. The door was completely shocked to still be in one piece.

* * * * On the Train * * * *

Alphonse was reading on the train (big surprise there) it was the last day of the incredibly long, and boring, trip to East City. Edward had, like usual, had slept almost the whole way, waking only to eat and to take care of other needs. Alphonse looked down at his brother, who was curled up on the seat next to him and giggled softly. Edward was curled up into a little ball with his knees pulled up to his chest with his arms somehow tucked beneath them. His head was resting on Alphonse's lap. He looked like a little kid sleeping next to his strangely dressed father.

"Brother, we are almost there." Alphonse gently shook his brother awake.

"Huh? What is it?" Edward asked, rubbing sleepily at his eyes.

"We are almost in East City. I think that we have about fifteen minutes before we arrive at the station." Alphonse patiently repeated.

"Oh." Came the intelligent response as the elder brother began cleaning the seats that had books and notes scattered over them during the trip.

When the train finally stopped at the station, the brothers practically ran to the exit in their eagerness to be off the train.

"So, where are we supposed to go first?" Alphonse asked as they walked through the streets.

"Well, there have been rumors that the river has been turning a familiar shade of red every couple of months. We need to find the source." Edward replied as he looked for an appropriate inn to stay at. "Ah, let's go here, Al." After paying for a room and putting their things on the beds, the boys headed right back out the door. They went about a mile outside the city and started walking along the banks of the river that fed through the city.

"What are we looking for?" Alphonse piped up after he and Edward had been following the river for about twenty minutes.

"Anything suspicious, Al. a cave big enough to let someone in, odd formations in the foliage, footprints on the banks of the river. Doesn't matter how small the clue is, it could lead us to some answers." Edward said as he stared intently at some bushes. "If someone was trying to manufacture red water, they certainly would not want any prying eyes to watch."

"Makes sense. They would also need a lot of room to work too." Alphonse started to answer when he heard a yelp behind him. When he turned around, his brother was gone.

"Brother?" He called, confused. When he received no response, Alphonse rushed back where his brother had been and nearly fell down the same sharp slope that had surprised his brother. "Brother! Answer me!"

"Al?" Came a dazed and slightly slurred voice down by the river's edge.

Alphonse was beyond relieved to hear Edward's shaky voice call his name. "Brother, what happened?" He carefully made his way down the slope to where he could see his brother slowly sitting up.

"Slipped on some loose rocks I didn't know were there." Edward answered, grateful that Alphonse was the only one to see his embarrassment. He frowned when he tried to move his automail arm. He was able to move the upper arm just fin, but the elbow was a bit slow to respond, and anything below the wrist didn't move at all.

"Great, now my arm is messed up." He grumbled as Alphonse carefully rolled the sleeve up to see what damage there was.

"Winry is going to be mad at you, Brother. It looks like the elbow joint is only jammed, she can fix that with no problems." the younger brother said. He then inspected the hand. "This wrist may be another story. Looks like you managed to break cleanly through the joint connecting the hand to your arm."

"Perfect. Not even one day on this mission, and I've already screwed it up." Edward moaned in self-pity as he covered his face with his flesh hand. "I am going to have a permanent wrench shaped lump on my head when Winry finds out about this."

"Well, might as well go back to the station. If we find a train tonight, we could be back in Resembool in time for dinner tomorrow." Alphonse stated as he helped Edward stand.

"Are you kidding? Can you imagine how that would look on my report? Havening to abandon a mission because I fell down and broke my arm? No way are we leaving until we've finished." Edward ranted indignantly. He then stubbornly started searching the banks of the river again. Albeit a lot more cautiously than before though.

Alphonse sighed and followed suit, knowing that it would be useless to argue further.

After two more weeks of searching, the brothers had absolutely no luck finding anything.

"Man, what a huge waste of time!" Edward shouted at the wall in the room he and Alphonse were sharing. "We searched the river bank five miles upstream and downstream of the city. We checked every nook and cranny of the streets and buildings. We even checked the damned sewers! Nothing! Not even the people here admit to seeing anything strange about the river in years. There is nothing going on in this stupid city."

"Well then, write your report so that we can go see Winry." Alphonse said, equally frustrated about the false lead. He was tired of watching Edward struggle to do everything one handed. He had tried to help his brother at first, but the blond had insisted that he could handle it by himself.

"Can't you just get the blueprints and fix it yourself?" Pleading golden eyes bored into hollow red ones.

Alphonse had to work hard to keep his tone stern and full of disapproval. "No, I can't. You know that." he almost broke down in a fit of giggles at the sight of Edward's severely crestfallen expression. "Just think of it this way, you needed to get your automail readjusted anyways. You are still growing after all."

Edward only sighed in defeat and sat down at the table to write his report. He made sure to let the Colonel know that he was wrong about when he said that his last mission was the most useless assignment he had ever been given. No, this mission was much more useless because they had not found even a hint that there is, or ever was any red water in the city.

After the boys were packed and ready to go, Edward reluctantly started walking toward the train that would take him to his doom.

A/N - Five chapters edited, one to go.