Everyone died. The End.
Just kidding. Well, I've got a present for you. Instead of updating Thursday, I'll update now! (You better love me, peasants.) The animal, I mean, anime convention was fantastic! What a wonderful experience! I've got all sorts of new FMA stuff. There were Ed, Mustang, Hughes, Hawkeye, Winry, Zuko, Toph, and Sokka cosplayers there. There was even a male Korra!
Enough of me, you just want to read this, don't you. Well, I'm not gonna let you! *Claps* Nothing happens…
A Mysterious Illusion- I like your review. I just updated. Message delivered. :)
The Meat Bond
Rice fell out of Ed's open mouth as the freaky man glared at Toph and Katara with recognition. The man seemed to be satisfied with his findings, and slowly exited the room, but not without sneaking a glance at the blonde boy who had food dribbling down his clothes. The man narrowed his eyes at Ed, as if he were contemplating about blowing the cell up.
When the man left, Ed closed his mouth and managed to swallow the food that hadn't fallen out. Once he got over his shock, Ed grabbed one of the bowls of food and shoved it through the bars.
"Hungry?" He offered innocently. It was at that moment when the two girls realized Ed was in the same room as them. Toph frowned and placed her hand on her forehead, whereas Katara looked angry and confused.
"What are you doing here?" Katara asked in a harsh whisper, so she didn't arouse suspicion from the guard.
"Eating." Ed grabbed his last bowl of rice and shoved it in his face.
"Yes, but why are you here?" Katara's eye twitched slightly.
"Didn't Toph and the others tell you?"
"They told me you were working to get supplies." At this point, Toph had her arms crossed. Katara gave both Ed and Toph dirty looks, even though Toph couldn't see the anger on the eldest girl's face.
"Oh. Well, my reward is 600 gold pieces…"
"I can't believe you would do something so stupid." Really? Katara clearly hadn't been around Ed long enough. "Whose idea was it? Yours?" Katara aimed her whispered voice at Toph.
"Actually, it was mine. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Ed decided to prove his point by skipping his now empty bowl against the wooden floor. It clattered and kept on rolling until it hit the bars. "Hey, old man!" Ed yelled. "Keep me happy and give me some more food before I go get it myself." The guard disbelievingly looked at the bound alchemist and laughed. Ed clapped his hands, broke the rope that was tied loosely around his wrists, and transmuted his signature blade onto his right arm.
The man looked terrified and ran hastily out of the room. "And don't forget the sauce!" Ed shouted after the guard.
After a few short minutes, two guards came back with several steaming bowls of noodles, and shoved them in the cell with the ends of their spears. Ed returned his arm to normal and began to devour the spicy food. At least they had given him some flavorful food this time. The two guards then quietly talked to each other, but they were not safe from Ed's prying ears.
"He's too dangerous to keep here. We need to ask the Firelord what to do with him. In the meantime, he should be sent to the Boiling Rock." Good, they should be absolutely terrified of him.
"I'll get right on that, Sir." The man bowed, gave Katara and Toph a quick strange look, then quickly exited the room. Ed curiously looked over and saw Katara was running in place like a madwoman. Well, it was better to train the body instead of being a bum, Ed decided. The remaining guard finished writing his letter and left the room.
"…You're a sweaty, stinky genius!" Ed finally chimed in on the conversation while he ate his noodles and watched as Katara broke the wooden cell bars with her freaky water powers. Where did she get the water from? Ed knew that this whole bending thing followed some form of equivalent exchange; that water couldn't have come from nowhere. After little thought, Ed finally understood Toph's words. Katara was using her own sweat! Gross, but mostly cool.
After Katara slashed the door open, Toph came out and smashed Ed's cell wall down. Katara stormed into the cell and slapped the perfectly good bowl of noodles out of Ed's hands.
"Hey!" Katara paid him no attention and drug him out of the cell by the ear. "I wasn't done eating that." He said once his ear was released and when they were outside of the building.
"You could've broken us out! Aang is in trouble." Ed raised his hands in defense.
"I'm sure he's fine."
"No, there's a freaky assassin after him." Toph confirmed.
"You mean the guy with the tattoo that blows stuff up?" Ed cocked his head slightly, while Katara nodded her head in confirmation.
"Yeah…Wait, how'd you know about that?" Ed ran his fingers through his hair, which had several grains of rice spread around in it.
"When I first got here, a bunch of guys jumped me and captured me. That weirdo came in and started to blow the place up."
"He was looking for Aang. You look nothing like him, so he had to have been angry."
"Enough chit chat, we should look for Aang before that fire freak gets to him." Again, it felt very weird for Ed to pronounce the foreign name. Usually, he addressed his companions as her or him. Stupid strange names.
It wasn't very hard to find Aang; all they had to do was follow the noise of explosions and the sight of rubble clouds. Ed could see Aang and Sokka hiding behind a large ruined water fountain, which wasn't going to be a good hiding spot much longer.
Toph stomped the ground causing pieces of earth to fly at the assassin. At the same time, Ed clapped his hands and used the same tactic to hit the man. They were successful at hitting the freak, but he regained his stance and held his forehead. He huffed deeply, but was knocked down by the force of a rebounded explosion. The group took their chance and ran, despite Ed's protest to stay and fight.
They flew away quickly, again, with Ed griping. He still didn't like flying on something that shouldn't be able to fly, and held on tightly to the saddle, just like Toph did. Appa landed in a small forest and everyone unpacked their things. Ed changed back into his incognito clothes, brushed all of the rice out of his messy hair, and sat on the warm forest ground. He didn't have any belongings here to deal with. Ed decided to help out and got a fire started, without the help of alchemy. He started it the way he and his brother had done many years ago.
Once the sun started to fade away, everyone huddled around the bright, crackling fire.
"Man, I'd give an arm and a leg for a juicy steak right now." Sokka said as he held his rumbling stomach. Ed stood up and walked around the fire and glared at Sokka. He smacked the idiot in the back of his head with his metal arm.
"Ouch! What was that for?" Sokka wrapped both arms around his head.
"For being a moron." Ed crossed his arms and prepared to sit back down, until Sokka stood up and faced his attacker.
"I'm tired of you calling me names."
"Sit down." Ed hissed at the much taller, menacing looking boy.
"No! You can't tell me what to do. If I could, I would put you in your place." Oh, a challenger? Ed grinned. There was no way this third-rate child would even be able to leave a scratch on him.
"Why don't you then? Scared that I'm gonna whoop your sorry butt?" Sokka sat down in defiance.
"No, I'm better than that. I don't pick fights with unworthy people like you." Ed's eye twitched. He so badly wanted to show this idiot who was the boss.
"You're just scared that your mommy won't be here to kiss your boo boo." Ed cringed slightly at his own words; who was he to bring someone's mother into an argument? Then, Sokka did the unexpected. He jumped up and tackled Ed to the ground.
Ed landed with a rather loud thud, and he couldn't move. By the time he got over his shock of being knocked over, Ed realized he was being hit and punched repeatedly by Sokka, the maniac. Ed held up his hands defensively and finally clapped. No one did a sneak attack against the Fullmetal Alchemist and expected to walk away unscathed.
A blade was transmuted onto his arm. He could hear yelling from the other three, but both he and Sokka ignored them. Ed made sure to use his left arm for most of the punches so he didn't kill the kid. Sokka seemed to be giving it his all and even pulled out a club. There was a fire in Sokka's eyes that startled Ed. He had crossed a line.
Somehow, the two managed to stand up and continued with the fight. They yelled mostly incomprehensible and derogatory words at each other.
"I don't understand why you hate me so much." Ed yelled as he lifted his left leg to block an incoming blow from the club.
"Because you attacked us!" Sokka used his club to block an incoming automail punch.
"The others accepted me, why can't you?" Ed's right foot managed to hit the back of one of the boy's knees. Sokka buckled and mumbled something Ed couldn't hear.
"Sorry, I don't speak dumb." Ed hunched over Sokka victoriously.
"You bit me!" Sokka held up his arm and showed Ed the small crescent shaped scar. Ed dared to laugh and took off his shirt. He displayed his scars around the automail and scowled.
"That must suck. It's going to leave a mark." Sokka looked up at the pissed off Ed. Before either boy could do any further damage, their feet were encased with earth. Ed and Sokka glared at the perpetrators, who happened to be Toph and Aang.
"Enough fighting." Aang said simply. Toph grabbed both boys by the arms and dragged them to the edge of a cliff, and set them down.
"You two are going to sit here and talk like civilized people-" Toph began.
"Can't I beat the crap out of him like a civilized person?" Ed asked and glared at Sokka.
"No. Do anything funny and you'll regret it. Understood?" They nodded, then muttered yes and watched as the angry earthbender sat down about twenty feet away. At first, both boys were awkwardly quiet. They watched the rest of the sun set over the ocean, and Sokka seemed to dreamingly stare at the moon. What was Ed supposed to say? He was relieved when Sokka was the first to speak after an hour of silence.
"My mom is dead." Ed was slightly shocked by the bluntness, but he understood why Sokka had snapped. He felt like a terrible person; he would have done the same thing if anyone had said the same thing.
"So is mine. All I have is my brother." Ed sighed. When was he going to see his dear little brother again? He had to find a way out of this dreaded place.
"Katara is the only family I have." Sokka rested his chin on his knees.
"What about your father?" Ed could almost predict the answer.
"He left." Ed grunted and nodded his head. He inhaled deeply and reached into his pocket, pulling out a chunk of dried jerky. He offered some to Sokka.
"I'm sorry. You just remind me of some people at home who annoy me." Ed added with his offering. Yes, Sokka seemed to act a lot like Mustang and the idiot prince, Ling.
"I'm also sorry." Sokka took the jerky and the two quietly ate the meat. The stars twinkled and there was a light warm breeze in the air. A bond made through meat had been made that day, and all was calm.