Disclaimer: Hiromu Arakawa owns the manga series Fullmetal Alchemist, and quite frankly she's doing a much better job with it than I could ever do.

I know the genre says that this story is humor and something else like general or friendship, and I had a really hard time with that. The whole idea of this AU, separate plot using the original timeline template, was supposed to be an adventure story, but then there was the stressing of alliances being made with people who never meet actually which made it friendship, and then there was the notion that I might put some good old-fashioned angst in there as well. I decided that calling it adventure would be too extreme, that there aren't friendships so much as there are convenient alliances, and that you can't have honest humor if there's somebody whining and bleeding their heart out the whole time (then again...). So I'll just stick with humor and general...for now. P. S.: I know Ling comes off as a bit snobby in this chapter, but it's from Mei's POV.

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How long had it been since that frenzied night of Hughes' death? Hawkeye remembered it as a terrifying blur now. So many faces, long and whipping back and forth in the confusion, that she couldn't recognize when she tried to recall them. The Colonel's face, stricken and pale white as she never wanted to see it, flashed through her mind in the recollection. All that was past now, but not forgotten. It resulted in the entire team, including herself, making the daring move to Central.

When Colonel Mustang had laid out the reasons for the move, there were no objections, but she didn't think the full force of the idea had hit them until they actually moved. Falman and Fuery were comfortable living in the available dorms, but Hawkeye preferred renting her own room, so there was a bit more work for her during the first few days. She'd found a quaint apartment with all the essential rooms (each of which might as well have been three by three wide) and thought it was cozy, then realized she hadn't bought groceries yet and decided to take advantage of her day off. Walking down the street, she found herself wishing she had some sort of time-consuming hobby.

In the alley she passed by, two eyeholes glowed as the gaping mask of the suit of armor emerged from the blackness. Hawkeye gave no sign that she heard the clank, and ascertained that both her guns were within easy access.

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"So, Miguel, was it?" asked Winry amiably, measuring the boy's stump of a left leg. "Where are you from? It looks like you've come a long way, like me." She waited politely, but he only stared back with his head to one side. Rose knew that when he did that he meant to seem mute and deaf, and probably stupid too.

"We've come from Liore, which is a little north-east," she answered the young mechanic. "It's a small town that's surrounded by desert, so there aren't a lot of business people who aim for us. We have a hard time finding a doctor, usually, so you can imagine how long we had to look for an automail mechanic. When we found him, he said that performing surgery on Miguel would be out of his league, and told us Miguel's best hope would be to head for the centre of automail. So we got a map and took trains all the way. We only overshot once, but it turned out all right, huh?" She smiled at Miguel, who wasn't taking the hint to act more friendly. She turned to the window and frowned. "Actually Liore is in a state of decay right now, and I'm really worried about how things are going over there. I want to head back soon, but there's Miguel here, and I don't have enough money to pay for his leg and a ticket all the way home."

Winry wrote down the measurements on the clipboard like Garfiel had told her to. "Why don't you stick around here for a while, get a job till you can afford for the both of you to get back home?"

"Both of us? Oh, no, Miguel said he's not coming back."

"Really?" Winry squinted at the youth, who pretended pick his nose. "So it's not that he can't talk so much as he doesn't want to. Hey there, kiddo, you got something against me?" Miguel stared hard at the window and bent to tie his one shoe. "Well, Rose-san, how do you expect him to make money on his own?"

Rose's eyes twinkled. "You'll see soon enough."

This confused her, but she decided not to press the matter further. "So what do you mean Liore is in a state of decay?"

"Um, let's see...a little while ago, a priest of Leto showed up claiming to perform miracles in the name of the Sun God Leto. Everyone followed the man without question, but a few months ago he was exposed for a fraud by an alchemist named Edward Elric."

Winry perked up. "You know Ed?" From that moment on Miguel was left to his own devices as Rose heard all gossip possible to be heard about the diminutive alchemist. It only took about fifteen minutes, but Rose felt her ears ringing. "Anyway," Winry finished, "he dropped me off here and headed with his brother Al and a friend of his from the military toward Dublith. He should be there about now."

"Hm," said Rose. "I've heard a little bit about Dublith. It's a small town, but it has a good education system and a lot of kids." At Winry's nonchalantly curious look, she added, "I know because I'm interested in that line of work. It's like how you knew what Rush Valley was. Dublith, huh..." She looked serious again. "Miguel, I'm sorry, but I'm going to pay them for your leg and then head toward that town. I promise to come back in a few months to see if you want to go back to Liore. If anything happens before then...um, hm... Hey Winry, do you have the phone number for this shop?" Winry gave her a business card Garfiel kept by the cash register—so professionally—and Rose said, "If anything happens to you, I'll feel it and call this place, and you'll feel it and come to this place. So in the meantime, find a place to stay and keep out of trouble."

Without so much as a wave goodbye, she laid down more than enough money for the automail leg on the counter and went out the door. She went so quickly that she didn't notice Scar standing inconspicuously by the window. He had, of course, heard everything.

Dublith, hm? He would be sure to travel in a separate cart.

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Dublith, as a matter of fact, did have a very fine education system. But because it was summertime, it was not put to use except for the preschools and private daycares. But Ed, Al, Sheska and Paninya were the last people to look for this aspect of the small, easygoing town. Ed and Al were shivering so much about what could happen when they showed up in front of their Teacher again that Paninya had begun to focus all her energy into milking the subject for all it was worth. "Aw, you'll be fine, as long as you don't mind having three metal limbs instead of two, Ed."

"Quit it, you dolt. You don't even know what you're talking about." The almighty Fullmetal didn't even have his heart in making up insults, because he was so busy imagining the reliving of past lessons. He gave a shudder as his brother reached down and put a handless glove on his shoulder.

"Brother, maybe we should tell them to... I mean, you know what could happen."

"Whadaya mean?" said Ed disbelievingly. "We've only brought them along so far so they could help prevent that."

"You know as well as I do that no one can stop her. Not even witnesses." Ed started to say something, but instead let out the wordless air through puffy, pouting cheeks. "It's the inevitable, and maybe we deserve it... especially you, with all the terrible things you've been saying to Winry and them all this time."

"Oh, shut up." But he sighed, defeated. "Listen, you two." He waited for the giggling to stop. "Hey quiet, you morons! Look. I know you haven't met our Teacher yet, but to me and Al the threat is very real. So it's not like we're worried about you guys or anything, but just—it'd be better if you'd just—"

"What Brother is trying to say is, maybe it would be best if you two would check out the town for a while until it's safe."

Sheska and Paninya looked at each other, back at Al, and shrugged. "Okay," they said together. "Maybe you should give us the address so we can meet back with you guys in a few hours," added Sheska. Al pulled out a piece of paper from a notebook he kept inside himself and scribbled it out, then realized he didn't know which one of them to hand it to. Sheska was responsible, but was known for being clumsy and apt at losing small things. And Paninya was, of course, a thief, but she probably had made a habit of making sure that the little but valuable things she stole stuck with her.

"Paninya, here you go. You can't miss it, trust me, even though it's a bit ordinary." He looked cautiously toward Sheska, but she didn't seem offended. As he waved them off cheerfully, he bent to nearly Ed's level and said, "Brother, let's just get this over with."

"Yeah," said the older brother grimly, golden eyes beginning to dull in fearful expectation. He turned and began an earnest stalking down the street.

"Brother, that's the wrong way."

"Yeah..."

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Mei Chan and Xiao Mei were stuck in the desert. Mei knew which direction was west, but there was a sandstorm going on that prevented her from moving. All she could do was use the Purification Arts to make an underground tunnel so they were safe from the course sands beating them. After all, she felt a certain responsibility for Xiao Mei. It warmed her, to think that she was needed and taken seriously by someone in the world.

There were many people who didn't take her seriously at all. That was partly the reason adding to her reason for leaving Xing on the quest; because of her size, or lack thereof, she was often overlooked. Mei Chan couldn't count the exact number of occasions in which this happened, but there were a loathed few which persisted in her mind word for word, urging her on for vengeance. She would show them! She would accomplish a feat so tremendous that it would eclipse the past humiliations, and all those who inflicted them upon her.

One such event stuck with her clear as the condensed sand walls surrounding her. She had been in line to gain permission from the officials to pursue her mission in Amestris. There was a fee for some sort of passport, and she had been saving up for it for quite some time, so she was very excited. She had turned to Xiao Mei while waiting, in a conspiring manner, whispering about how she imagined their plans to fold out, when a boy older than her, a masked girl his age, and an elderly man with a mask complementing the girl's took advantage of the space that opened up when Mei failed to notice the line moving up, and cut in front of her. Now, cutting in lines was not uncommon, but she hadn't expected it to happen in this somewhat more dignified setting, and least of all to her of all people. Her only choice was to seethe quietly and whisper in a louder tone to Xiao Mei, making sure to use a complaining tone as to hint to the offenders, who paid her no attention.

When the teenager (she was now at the age where she could more or less estimate the ages of these strange creatures who weren't grown-ups or children; before, she had honestly doubted they were human) with the ponytail held by a small ribbon bow reached the counter, Mei assumed he would be done fairly quickly, and that the two masked people were his servants. Therefore her turn wasn't far off. But it turned out that the bowed youth had forgotten to fill out a certain form, so the clerk made him to fill one out right at the counter. This took about five minutes, with several clarifications between him, his servants and the clerk. Then when he had finally finished with the sheet, he handed it over to the clerk, who smiled graciously and told him that the estimated time it would take for processing would be about six months.

"Six months!" exclaimed the unusually squinty-eyed youth (his eyes were indeed abnormally narrow even in Xingan terms). He brought his hand to his mouth to calm down, then said, "I'm sorry but I can't wait that long. I have to be on my way by the end of this week."

The clerk laughed, then stopped at the boy's scathing mien. "Sir, you cannot expect for a form at this level to go through the system that quickly. This is a legal document between two countries. My condolences, but..." The youth began to argue with him, and the clerk argued back, both of their voices raising so the squabble could be heard from the end of the line and a security officer asked if there was any trouble. "None, thank you," replied the clerk snippily. "And Mr. Ling Yao, if you are not going to submit your document, then kindly step out of line."

Mei gasped and covered her mouth hurriedly in the much of same manner the now identified upper prince had. Ling Yao! This person standing in front of her was the twelfth in line for the throne. What would someone of his status be doing in a place like this? She glanced at Xiao Mei and widened her eyes at the realization. Of course! He had been thinking along the same lines as herself. He was planning to travel to Amestris in order to find the secret to buying the emperor's favor—the secret to immortality!

The prince complied with the clerk's suggestion politely but grudgingly, the two masked servants flanking him as if trying to give him back a regal appearance. The clerk then turned to Mei. "Can I help you, Miss?"

"Oh, actually no, sorry." She couldn't afford to wait that long either, even if a passport would help with getting into Amestris. She told herself reassuringly that she could probably get in past the guards anyway: the old fashioned way.

But this was a drawback. It seemed she had competition for her goal. Her only choice was to confront the matter while it sat before her. She gulped. Ling Yao was twelfth in line; with much more power at his disposal, if she didn't intone her words correctly he could make short work of her, and even worse, make trouble for her clan. Xiao Mei nudged her chin up. Mei acknowledged the encouragement appreciatively, and handed the panda a piece of candy. Xiao Mei was right; she had to have the willpower to achieve what she needed to.

Outside the building doors, the prince was consulting with his servants closely, possibly reassessing their options. Mei Chan swung the tinted glass door open forcefully and took a wide, firm stance to the left of the three of them. "Thought you could get ahead of me, did you?" she barked.

Unfortunately, in Ling's perspective, the challenge came out as a squeak. "And you are?" he asked, nonplussed.

"I am Mei of the Chan clan," snapped the petite Purification Arts specialist, "and I will attain the secret of immortality before you do, on my honor!"

One of the masked servants, the one with her hood up, shifted her weight into a defensive stance, standing in front of the prince and holding up a kunai. "Shall I kill her, Master?"

"Prepare to meet your maker!" But she detected a quaver in her voice.

Prince Ling of the Yao clan shook his head. "Geez, I'd feel like a big bully then. Look Ranfan, she attacks on her own; she must be in a tougher situation than us. Probably one of the lower princesses." He turned his back on her. "Let's go."

Mei's jaw dropped in indignance. "Don't ignore me!" The hooded and elderly guards began to follow him slowly. "I am a major political threat and expect to be treated as such!" Mei roared. She knew she was pushing her luck; they could turn around and attack her anyway. But she had to defend her clan at any cost.

She heard the elderly guard mutter to the prince, "Sir, it's true she is very young, but we cannot underestimate any enemy. Not now."

Ling looked back at her, exchanged glances with the guard, and smirked at her over his shoulder. "Why don't you just go home and play with your cat there? What you plan to attempt is too far out of your league anyway. Don't worry though; I promise to be kind to the Chan clan when I take the throne." And with that, he dismissed her and strode off, guards in tow.

On her shoulder, Xiao Mei shivered with rage at the disgrace to her protector. That settled it. Now she was definitely getting to Amestris, and there was no stopping her. She made a solemn oath to herself that from that point on, she would always press forward.

Huddled in her makeshift sand shelter, still stranded, Mei remembered the encounter with injured pride and justified fury. "That's right Xiao Mei," she said to the panda, taking out her rations and distributing them equally between them. "I can't ever give up. I will make sure our clan's name is not further disgraced!"

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Sheska and Paninya, after splitting up with the Elric brothers, had immediately begun wandering around aimlessly. First they went to find a place for fun, but they couldn't agree on anything, so then they went to see about something to eat. Paninya suggested curry, of course, but Sheska said that she couldn't possibly eat something so outrageously spicy. Then Sheska spotted a nice noodle shop, but Paninya said she wasn't in the mood for something so wimpy; she wanted 'substance'.

Finally they saw a shop selling a food neither of them had eaten before. "What did you say they called this stuff?" asked Paninya nervously.

"Pizza, they call it." Sheska peeked through the window at some examples advertised in posters. "It resembles okonomiyaki, sort of, but from what I've heard about it the two taste nothing alike." Some of the older people inside were opening their napkins and laying them on their slices. When they took them off, there was a noticeable amount of grease staining each one. "It looks unhealthy."

"Junkfood is my middle name," said Paninya enthusiastically. Evidently she was convinced that that was all the proof she needed. Sheska made a face to her. "Aw, please Sheska? The worst that could happen is you not liking it."

"Or I could become fatally addicted to it," muttered Sheska, watching one of the few obese women she had seen in Amestris waddle out of the establishment. Silently she corrected herself, apologizing for such callous judgment of another person like her mother would tell her to.

Paninya was determined now to try the strange food. She was curious, and that meant she was going to get her way no matter what. "Come on, Sheska, let's just try it! Everybody else who's tried it seems to love it!" She was so persistent and persuasive about it that eventually they did indeed end up going inside and ordering a plain old traditional pepperoni pizza slice each. They were enormous, steaming, and the cheese spilled over the edges. Paninya gulped in the smell and rated it approvingly.

"All right, on three," said Sheska, picking up the oily mass cautiously, Paninya doing the same with an expression saying she thought all this fuss was very foolish but funny. "One, two, three."

It was an explosion of gleaming euphoria inside her mouth. She gave pause and let the oil soak her tongue. She chewed the bite and sucked on the lump that formed, creating a ball of dough, cheese and just the right amount of spice so that it wasn't unbearable. Such a miraculous blend of flavors... she put a hand to her eye and realized that it was watering. She whimpered in undulated pleasure. "I was a fool for not trying this earlier," she admitted to Paninya. But the former thief was flushed with bliss, and not in the mood for conversation. It was an eat first, talk later affair.

Sheska was tempted to buy a full one of them, but unhappily concluded that she had to use her remaining money wisely. After finishing up, they paid and left reluctantly, sighing and looking back often. "That was awesome," said Paninya, eyes closed.

"Mm," agreed Sheska. Then she remembered that they had to meet the Elrics. How long had they been walking around? It had at least been a couple of hours. "Hey Paninya, you think we should start to head toward Ed and Al's teacher's place?"

Paninya perked up. "Oh yeah, I'd almost forgotten!" She beamed malevolently. "I can't wait to see the damage on that pint-sized snotty-head. So where is it, anyway?" Sheska looked at her, and she snapped her fingers, chuckling. "Yes, I know I've got it." She reached into her the top of her shirt and pulled out the slip of paper Al had given her. Sheska studied it over her shoulder. "It does look like a nice address. But how are we to get there? Should we get a map?"

Sheska looked at her in horror. "Please no. Whenever I use a map it turns out... well, how about we call it getting undesirable results. Why don't we use the number, see? We'll find the forty-second street and then ask for directions to, um, 'Blargh' Avenue."

And that's exactly what they did. They started at 43rd street, so all they had to do was go down one and then walk along to the nearest fellow pedestrian to ask for directions. These didn't turn out as well; they had to go fifteen blocks down before reaching the designated avenue, and then they began the quest for the address of the butcher shop. They stopped a passing man with a cane. He smiled and told them, "Just go down that way a ways and you'll come across it on a corner. You can't miss it. You'll know which one it is because of the giant sign." They stared confusedly at him, but he chuckled and went on his way.

Sure enough, when they reached the corner the first thing they noticed was a humble butcher shop. As Al had told them, it was ordinary in every way except for the reason you couldn't miss it; the bold, capitalized title of the establishment. "MEAT."

Sheska stood still at the door, wondering just why the Elrics had bidden them to stay away for some time. Was it dangerous? Paninya, however, marched right in. Sheska took her arm. "What if they don't want us here yet?"

"Well then we'll just pretend we're customers or something. We'll wing it." She marched right in, the notoriously nervous librarian making herself scarce behind her. A bell positioned at the top of the door rang loudly as they entered, and a thickly muscled, clean-shaven man poked his head out from the door behind the counter.

"Sorry, we're closed at the moment," said the man cheerfully. "We've got visitors, see."

Paninya brightened. Abandoning her previous plan of posing as a customer, she asked, "Oh really? Would they happen to be a certain Ed and Al Elric?"

"Do you two know them?"

Sheska explained that they were traveling companions and had arranged to meet there. The man introduced himself as Mason and cheerfully told them they could probably come inside after him. "We were just finishing up dinner," he chattered easily, lifting up the bar at the counter to allow them in, "So I hope you've eaten already, because the master Curtis doesn't treat freeloaders lightly." The two girls exchanged glances, beginning to get edgy about meeting this Teacher of sorts.

Coming into the room they saw a plain but spacious round table laden with many bowls filled with soup and very much meat, as was expected from a butcher family. Ed and Al were as far to one side as they could be, the younger brother hunched close. They were conversing easily enough, but Sheska got the feel that they were choosing their words carefully. On the other side (that is, on the other side of Mason's empty chair) were two grown-ups they took to be the Curtis'. The husband was a bull of a man, huge, with a build like a bear and a fixed, intense expression on his face. His wife was lovely in the way a mother is; she was slim and fit, and though she had a kindly, smooth voice, there was a stern aura about her. She was stern like a teacher would be, thought Sheska in recognition.

But Paninya was stumped. "Huh, I can't tell which of them is their Teacher," she whispered out of the side of her mouth to Sheska. Standing up straight at the sudden stare of the couple, she said cordially, "Hello! I'm Paninya and this is Sheska. I'm sure Ed and Al completely forgot to tell you about us, but we're friends of theirs. It's nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis."

"Hello," said Mrs. Curtis with equal politeness, her husband nodding in acknowledgment. "Yes, they did manage to leave you out of their stories." She cast a swift glare towards the brothers, who flinched and gripped their seats. "Here, did you both already eat? I'm afraid there's not much left here, so we were just talking. Mason, do you think there's enough room for two more chairs...?"

For the rest of the evening they sat, talked and laughed, Sheska telling jokes she'd read in a comedian's memoir and Paninya prattling on about the latest gossip from Rush Valley. It had passed eleven when they were told to go upstairs with Ed and Al to go to sleep, supplied with a pillow and wool blanket each. They took different sides of the small bare room, Sheska and Paninya's feet touching each other's. The brunette bookworm gazed out the window at the streetlight beyond the glass, thinking of how far she had gotten already, and how she was to carry out her mission. The next day, she would have to get back out there and talk to people, a great many of them if it proved to be more of a difficult task than she had estimated. She sighed and turned her back on the window, then noticed something.

"Hey Ed, I've been meaning to ask you this, but where on earth did you get those nasty bruises from? Are you all right?"

"...I'd rather not talk about it."