"Hey!"
Annabeth lunged for the small stack of papers, and he quickly whipped it out of her reach. She was left straining to reach past him to grab them. "Gimme those! They're mine!" she whined, reaching beseechingly for them.
"What are they, and why are they so important? Tell me and I'll give 'em back t' ya!" he said mockingly, dangling them just out of her reach.
"Edwarrrd!" she whined. "Just give 'em!"
"Nah, I think I'll keep 'em!" he mocked, tucking them into his jacket.
"Then I'll just have to annoy you until you give 'em back!"
Annabeth dropped to the floor, wrapping herself around his leg. "Nii-chan, nii-chan, nii-chaaaaaan!"
"It's not working." he told her, putting his hands on his hips. Just then, there was a phone-call for him. "Okay, c'mon, let go."
"No, no, no! Nii-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"
"Then I'm just gonna have to drag you." he sighed.
"Won't that hurt her?" Al worried.
"Nah, she'll let go. Just watch."
She didn't let go. When he got to the lobby, she was still holding on, whining loudly. "Annabeth, please, shut up! I'm on the phone!" he cried.
"Lady trouble?" came Mustang's voice.
"Wouldn't you like to know? What do you want, Colonel Bastard?"
"I was wondering if you would please come on down here. We need to talk."
"That's gonna be hard. Annabeth won't let go of my leg. I can probably manage, but she'll whine throughout the whole conversation. I can barely hear you over her." he groaned.
"I can get louder! Nii-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" she bawled.
"I'll come. Maybe she'll let go by the time I get there."
She didn't.
"Nii-chan, nii-chan, nii-chan, nii-chaaaaaan! Give 'em baaaaaaack!" she bawled as he walked through the door.
"Sounds like you took something of hers." Hawkeye said with a chuckle.
"Apparently." Mustang nodded.
"Give give give give give give give give! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Annabeth wailed.
"Did you call me down here just to mock me, or is there a legitimate reason?" he asked over Annabeth.
"I just thought we could talk is all. Sit down." Mustang gestured to one of the couches.
"Nii-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! Giiiiivvvvvvvvvve! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"What did you take?" Hawkeye asked, smiling.
"Just some papers. She refuses to tell me what's so important about them." he groaned, looking down at Annabeth. "Amazing her leotard isn't in tatters."
"Nii-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! Gimme! Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme!"
"Why don't you just give them back? Maybe then she'll tell you." Mustang chuckled.
"Oh, shut up."
"I'll be even louder, nii-chan! Gimme back!" Annabeth shouted. "Gimme, gimme! Nii-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"
"Why don't you just sing or something, Annabeth? You aren't going to annoy me into giving them back. You're only succeeding in cutting off all circulation in my foot." he told her, trying without success to pry her fingers off.
"Niiiiiiiiiiii-! !"
He sighed in exasperation, giving up.
It was hard to hold a proper conversation. Annabeth's constant out-bursts made Hawkeye and Mustang laugh and interrupted any sentences he tried to form.
Eventually Mustang said something that gave her an idea. "Mustang-sensei! Who's taller, me or Edo-kun?"
Mustang looked carefully at her. "You." came the answer, with a certain force of finality behind it.
Annabeth giggled, then sat up, still holing onto his leg. "Chibico, chibico, chibico, chibico!" she sang. "Edo-chibi! Chibico, chibico, chibico!"
"All I know is that that is clearly something about my height!" he growled, wanting to hurt her. Because he didn't know what it meant, he didn't, but he really, really, really wanted to!
"Edo-chibi! Edo-chibi! Edo-chibi chibico! Edo-chibi! Chibico chibico chibico chibico chibico!"
"Would you shut up?"
"Her plan is clearly starting to work, Fullmetal!" Mustang chuckled.
"Yeah, but I'm not gonna give up! That's admitting defeat to her!" he snarled, trying again to pry her fingers from his leg. When that didn't work, he smacked her hand.
"Ouch! Edo-kuuuun! That huuuuurt!" She then clearly got another idea, because she grinned wickedly. "C-H-I-B-I spells little and C-H-I-B-I-C-O spells runt! Chibi chibico!" she laughed loudly.
"Well, that's one way to do it!" Hawkeye nodded with a smile on her face.
"That does it! Let go, you pathetic girl! I'm gonna kill you!" he roared.
"Edo-kun chibico! Chibi chibi chibi! Edward is a runt! Small small small!"
"She'll get to you before too long. Just wait. You can go now."
On the way back to hotel, he deliberately sloshed through puddles and whacked Annabeth on corners. She was very persistent, and refused to let go.
"She never let go?" Al asked as he came in the room.
"No! She held on the whole damn time! And she's calling me—"
"Edo-kun is a runt! Edo-kun is a runt! Edo-kun is a runt!" Annabeth sang loudly.
"Exactly!"
"I see!" Al giggled.
"Should I sing more, Edo-kun? Do you want me to?" Annabeth asked in a childish voice.
"Hell, no!"
"Okay! Chibi! Chibico chibi chibico chibi chibico chibi chibico! Edo-kun chibico! Edo-chibi chibico!"
When night fell, she still hadn't given up. "Annabeth! I want to go to sleep! Leggo!"
"Nevah nevah nevah nevaaaaaaaaaaherrr!" Annabeth sang loudly, and then resumed her small-runt chant.
"Just shut up!" he yelled, irritated.
"Nope, nope nope nopeity-nope! Chibi!"
"Shut up!"
"!" she wailed loudly.
"Please!"
"!"
"I want to—"
"!"
"Will—"
"!"
"Would you just shut the fuck up?"
"Nope! !"
"If I give you the papers, would you shut up and tell me what the fuck they are?"
"!"
"Well, here you go!" he yelled, whipping the papers and shoving them in her face.
"Yaaaay!" She then remembered the deal. "It's pictures of different butterflies and their samurais. This is my friend Sydney. She's a blue person, so she's a Brazilian Blue butterfly, and then this is her boyfriend, Bishop. This is Christie. She's a very colorful character, so she's rainbow-colored. She doesn't have a certain boyfriend, but lots of friends in the opposite gender, so I drew her up here, and all of them down here. This is Jacob. He's a strong yet small person, relying mostly on weapons, so he'd got dual blades, ninja-stars, assorted bombs and the like. Then the butterfly on his hand is Graylyn, his butterfly. She's a very pale and small, so I made her a Gossamer butterfly."
"Who's this one?" he asked, picking up a very good picture of a purple butterfly flying after a blonde man walking into the sunset.
"Well, this one is me. Everyone tells me I'm a purple character. Once I even dyed my hair purple just to prove it, and my dad says when I was born, I was purple too!" she giggled.
"Who's that?" he asked, tapping the man.
"He's more of a ninja actually. Everyone says I'm chasing after a guy that doesn't exist, so I just… drew it. See, he doesn't even notice. And his out-line is fuzzy."
"Chasing after a guy who doesn't exist?"
"Someone who is strong, a little shy, someone who won't regret to keep me in his net. That's one of my many descriptions. Depending on my mood, he's different. I actually drew all the different descriptions…"
Annabeth pulled out another pack of papers. On each paper was a different man with a butterfly of different color for every picture. He was drawn to the fact that all of the men had blonde pony-tails and amber eyes. He was particularly interested in one picture.
He had his back turned. But his face was turned so that the viewer could see some of his profile. He was calm and coolly glancing out of the picture. He wore a brown jacket over a pale periwinkle shirt. On his fingers was a pale lilac butterfly with dark indigo webs.
"This one is very good." he commented.
"That mood is calm, content, or relaxed. A strong man with many moods and a desire to protect everyone. He doesn't like to hurt or harm if he doesn't have to. He's my favorite samurai." Annabeth said dreamily.
"Hmm…" His eyes narrowed. "Hey… These looks like Hohenheim! Did you base them off of him?"
"No! I based them off of another blonde I know… At least when he's a little older!"
"Wait… You based these on me?"
"Yeah... Gomensai, did I do something wrong?"
"No, not at all! It's just… well, interesting, that someone would base a drawing on me!"
"Eeeee! Arigato!"
She tackle-hugged him just as Al burst in.