Chapter Four.

Mei looked around at the Military base excitedly when they arrived acting as usual like a small child been given too many toys."wow wow wow wow!!" she repeated in a pitched and equaly speedy voice tugging gently at Ed's sleeve "Looka that, cool. can you see." Ed looked thoughrouly unimpressed by her lack of composre when it came to entering what seemed like an every day building for all the others around her "hey where i come from the guards outside of the queens palace aren't allowed to move, are some of these guys like that?" she asked egerly tugging even more at Ed's sleeve like a small child wanting attention from an adult or parent.

"No." came the reply Mei pouted at this as if she were disappointed by the lack of disapline or the fact that she couldn't throw tomatos at them and them not react, This whole thing seemed to entertain Havoc and Armstrong who smirked at her childish behavior. They walked up some stairs, lots of stairs, "Why does he have to have a office that's on the third floor damn that stupid colonel." cursed Ed under his breath, Mei was too worn out to say anything her toungue hung limply out of the corner of her mouth in exhaustion and three steps after Ed spoke she fell anime style on her face pretending to die

"They should probably host a marathon up these goddamned stairs . . . that's if they don't lose any lives on the way up." she joked Ed let out a laugh in amusment of what she said helping her to her feet again, she took his hand graciously and smiled in thanks.

Ed got to Roy's office and knocked twice Havoc settling himself into his usual seat an unlit cigerette in his mouth watching out of the corner of his eye as the Fullmetal alchemist and his new company were granted entry, seeing as Hawkeye wasn't at her desk he presumed she was giving the colonel a long lecture about how his paperwork was supposed to be signed in time. He still thought that this girl was the strangest he had ever met she had pitch black hair, with a strange taste in fashion, she liked the color black and red obviously by the current outfit she wore: black short sleeved t-shirt that was bit baggy purposly so that she could wear, as she currently was, a longer sleeved t-shirt the arms on this one went to the crook of her elbow and was a deep shade of red and simple black combats covering her knee high platforms, her mouth was small and slightly cat shaped but seemed to get bigger if she was showing anger or extreme happiness, however the feature that was most striking to him was her eyes they big like you would see in a child and deep ocean blue someone could probably really get lost into her eyes as they seemed to acctually be as deep as the ocean that they reflected the most starling feature of her eyes wasn't simply their color or the fact that they looked like a huge puddle that covers about a third of the planets surface but that they reflected her mood with both movement and how the light inside them shone.

As expected the Leitenant was in the flame's office giving him a scolding over some late paperwork he had yet to sign when the blond entered, Ed immediatly smiled at this as he knew how much the Colonel hated paperwork also just for the pure self amusment that smirking would annoy the Colonel and he knew that annoyance was the last thing the Colonel ever wants when he, Edward Elric, walks into the room. "Colonel." he stated, Hawkeye nodded to him and left the room, Mustang looked up at the teen through his black bangs waiting for the report and the speech he was likely to get as well about how this wasn't his fault and that wasn't his fault

"Fullmetal." he replied taking note of the girl standing behind his subordinate, there was something strange about her and not just her apearance just the simple air about her seemed to be different than that of the average person, but just because he couldn't resist "Who's your girlfriend?" the result was only half according to his prediction the short blonde ranted at him sure enough however he did so with a blush on his face and not the 'anger raiseing the blood pressure' kind of blush either, he glanced again then saw she was no where to be found, or at least not where she was standing previously she had moved across the room and was currently looking lost out of the window, they had both noticed her at the same time

"Mei?" asked Ed a little unsure of exactly what she was doing, she didn't reply "Mei." he said a little louder "Mei Dearle!!" he almost shouted in her ear, she immediatly jumped out her own world and looked at Ed blankly obviously waiting for what he ad to say that was so important that he had to drag her out of her imagination

"Dearle??" mused Mustang where have i heard that name before?

"What were you doing you just suddenly was staring out of the window in some kind of trance?" inquired the older Elric raising one eyebrow at his smaller friend

"Oh i was just thinking about something." was Mei's reply both ignoring the Man's trail of thought in front of them

"You think??!!" exclaimed Ed in mock surprise "bout what?" he continued as her face contorted into that of anger, before she had a chance to answer the phone rang on the desk, Mustang picked it up and spoke in his official military voice

"Yes." he said curtly down the phone

"hi how're things there buddy. . . you know i was playing with Elysia the other day and she did the cutest thing . . ." Hughes voice sounded at the other end Mustang slumped in his chair as the chibi fight continued behind him

"Yes actually Edward Elric, and i'm not telling you until you apologise for the hurtful things you said to me."

"Well in that case i'm not going to apologise until you tell me what you were thinking about." they both finalised by turning their backs on each other and folding their arms over thier chests, Mei complete with pout on her lips.

". . .and then later that day she drew this really beutiful picture, i know i'll come up and show it to you."

"No that's noy really nessicary Hughes, but you could find some information for me. asap preferably." the black haired male looked out of the corner of his eye at the other female

"Sure thing Roy what do you n . . ."

"Can you find me all the information possible on the name Dearle? thanks." Mustang ended the conversation as fast as he could for fear one of the teens behind him would hear.

"okay fine, I'm sorry Mei... now will you tell me?" Ed said in a defeated voice as if it had taken all of his energy just to utter those few words

"Sure, i was think that the tree over there in the distance would make a great place for a tree house." she answered happily as if she was anouncing she had just got an A on all her GCSE's, Ed turned to stone (not literally, you know anime style) and shouted

"What is that all??!!!!!"

"Well yeah, what were you expecting?" a vein could be seen throbbing in his temple and with a loud shout he chased after the girl who in turn screamed and ran away running circles in the Colonel's office in a failed atempt at escaping the blonde, who put his alchemic skills to work and transmuted a wall in front of the black haired girl who hadn't actually hadn't practised Alchemy but seeing the gate she knew as much of the theory as Ed did, and clapping her own hands together she made stone hands come out of the floor and catch her persuer by the ankles, making him drop flat on his face and clapping again anouther couple of hands held onto his wrists stopping him from performing any alchemy or moving more than an inch for that matter, the bonds were tight but not so that they would hurt her captive. Ed wriggled in his spot rather than admit defeat. Blue eyes looked at Mustang for a minate before realising he was staring in annoyance at the wall behind her that his gracious subordinate had managed to transmute, she turned with a start and clapped her hands again the purple light of transmutation once again seen although in the heat of battle this was the first time that she had seen the color, and knew that purple was wrong, but decided not to say anything in front of the Colonel as the wall righted itself. Squatting down to taunt the boy that lay helpless at her feet a thought passed through her rushing mind how'd i do that? i've never had a real fight before except the few scuffles in the playground. "Comfy?" she asked smirking at his disposition.

"Fuck off." was the short reply that followed, as the tanned boy continued to attempt to escape his bonds, she patted him on the head like a dog and goaded him further

"There there, boy, no need to barkat me." she actualy found him really cute even in this position but she couldn't help but to annoy him it was in her contract

"WHAT!! are you implying that i'm a dog?" Mei acted surprised

"Well aren't you?"

"Fuck no, i'm gonna . . ." Ed was interrupted mid rant

"Do what, bite me ankles off." she laughed whilst Ed seethed her still stroking his hair subconciously, Roy sighed and watched the clock tick the few extra seconds to twelve oclock, presuming both other alchemists in the room had forgotten about his presense he walked out past the two on the floor to the mess hall to get something to eat.

"Will you stop that!" the older said in annoyance trying to dodge her hand as she continued still to pet him like a dog,

"i don't think you're in any position to tell me to do anything, Mr Elric." she replyed emphasising the 'mr' in that sentance and moving so that she sat on his back to be in a more comfortable position to stroke his braid rather than squatted on the floor, she ran her fingers down the braid a few times enjoying the feeling of the strands of hair beneath her fingertips, before leaning forwards slightly and stealing his hair band and letting his hair loose nowbrushing her hands through hair to untangle it from it's twisted state, Ed had long since stopped complaining for shock of what she was doing to his long blonde locks the red elastic around her wrist.