Chapter Text
Moonlight shined down over Central City. The night sky was a flutter with shining stars, and the streets were cleared of almost anyone, as the day drew to a close as nighttime silence overtook the sounds of a city.
…That is until the sound of a LOUD gurgling could be heard echoing across the entire city…
The source seemed to come from two figures, still wandering down the streets side by side, or rather, one of the two in particular. One seemed normal enough, being a teenaged boy with long blond hair, sporting black pants and a black sleeveless shirt, under a large red coat. The other? A massive walking suit of rather fierce looking armor, or rather, it WOULD look fierce, were its’ palm not planted so firmly across its’ metallic face.
…And to be completely fair, walking wasn’t necessarily the right word to describe what the young man with the blond hair was doing. Slogging was about as accurate a word as any, as he slouched forward, barely moving with each slow, sluggish step, arms wrapped firmly around his midsection, and with a rather dazed and exhausted look across his face as his stomach groaned LOUDLY again.
“Honestly, Brother, you can be so overdramatic sometimes,” remarked the suit of armor with a surprisingly young sounding voice. The voice belonging to the essence of Alphonse Elric, the younger brother of the teen sluggishly making his way through the streets; Edward Elric – AKA ‘The FullMetal Alchemist.’
“…I’m gonna die, Al…” Ed muttered weakly, groaning equally weak in the process. “…If I don’t find food in approximately six seconds, I am going to drop dead right here, right now…”
“I’m sure there’s something at the Hotel, Brother. We just have half a-“
*THUD!*
…Before Al could even finish his sentence, his older, smaller brother face planted onto the floor beneath them, laying there motionlessly and groaning a low, weak, pitiful sounding groan.
“…Need…fooooooood…”
Al sweatdropped and sighed to himself for the billionth time that hour alone…
“If you were so hungry, why didn’t you get dinner before we left?” Al inquired, earning the same pitiful sounding groan as before, followed by Edward responding with, “…I left my wallet at the Hotel…”
Oh so slowly, Al’s palm slid off his metal ‘face’ as his fiery red eyes glanced down at his brother.
“…Again?”
“…Again…”
Before Alphonse could reply, a third figure approached the young siblings. This one appeared to be a man in his mid fifties, wearing a sweater, business pants, and sporting glasses. He smiled at the duo and extended his hand to the surprised suit of armor.
“Excuse me, might you happen to be the FullMetal Alchemist?” The man inquired.
“Sorry, sir, that would be my big brother…down here…” Al replied, pointing down at the still motionless Ed laying face first on the ground. After a moment, Ed raised his automail metal arm, pointed his index finger up…face still planted against the ground and weakly muttered, “…That’s me…” before letting his arm fall back to the ground.
Smiling at the two peculiar youths, the man nodded and said, “Well, it’s an absolute pleasure! I was on my way back home when I spotted you two coming down this way, and I just wanted to thank you both for dealing with that crazed lunatic this afternoon!”
Despite their present state, the two State Alchemists were in quite a different situation earlier that day. A renegade Automail bandit who called himself ‘Beowulf,’ and his group of thugs, had caused quite a stir, in an attempt to rob an entire art gallery, taking several people hostage in the process. What Beowulf hadn’t counted on was the Elric Brothers being there to question one of the Gala Attendants about an ‘ongoing investigation’ the two had been working on, regarding something known as ‘The Philosophers Stone.’
In retrospect, this was part of why Edward was so utterly exhausted. Beowulf was a tough one, sporting an oversized left Automail arm that threw some MEAN punches…and a Gatling gun for a right arm. But in the end, it was the Brothers Elric who would prove victorious…even if the fight itself left the elder of the two completely exhausted, and without the time needed to feed himself.
Regardless of all that, Alphonse nodded back at the man graciously and said, “Please, that’s not necessary. We were just doing our job.”
“…What he said…” Ed remarked, voice muffled by the concrete beneath him.
“I beg to differ, young man,” the elder man replied before adding, “see, my wife works at that gallery, and that bastard tried taking her hostage when things went south. That is, before you put a stop to that. It also dawns on me that you’re both currently staying at my Hotel. Well, as thanks for what you two did, I just want you to know, that, for as long as you’re in Central, and as long as you need a roof over your heads, I’ll be sure to keep a room available, free of charge.”
“Oh, thank you very much, sir!” Alphonse said gratefully, before his metal helmet of a head looked down and subtly nudged Edward with his foot.
“…Thanks a bunch…” Ed added, still too exhausted to add any kind of enthusiasm to his voice, much to Al’s embarrassment.
Fortunately, the man himself didn’t seem bothered in the least. In fact, he chuckled with amusement and knelt down to Edward’s level.
“My daughter is equally grateful. See, she happens to work as the head chef of our Hotel’s Kitchen. And, as thanks for you boys saving her mother, I believe she said something along the lines of whipping those two up a feast to end all feasts, which…SHOULD be awaiting you in your room right about-“
…In the blink of an eye, Ed’s small lifeless body SHOT up the ground…and above it as he jumped in the air, maintaining some semblance of flight as he flailed his arms and legs around like a madman, as if shot with adrenaline as he joyously and eagerly screamed, “FOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!”
And before another word could be uttered, he landed on the ground, and DARTED towards the Hotel fast enough to leave dust clouds in his eager wake. The man was still looking down at the ground, not quite sure if he had fully processed what just happened, while Al blinked dully.
After a few moments, the younger Elric rubbed the back of his metal head sheepishly and said, “…He, erm…was kind of hungry…”
Still staring blankly at the dust cloud where Edward Elric was once laying face first, the man blinked once, then twice, and said, “…I can tell.”
Nonetheless, the man took it in good spirits, as Alphonse thanked him and his family for their immense generosity once more, and eventually took off after his brother, hoping he hadn't run straight into a street light...again...