Somewhat Human (Fullmetal Alchemist)

8: The Quaint Mines

The three of them sit on the train headed to their next destination, lounging like it was a couch, " There's no one here." Alphonse observes, looking at the empty booths. Edward hums and looks at his map, (Y/n) resting her chin on his shoulder to look at it with him," It makes sense, the place we're going isn't really a tourist hotspot." Edward spoke while looking out the window. He would have had the window seat this time but Alphonse's body took up the window seat on both of the booths with how he was lounging.

" I heard the place is a ghost town anyways, people wouldn't go even if the rumors didn't exist." (Y/n) says waving her hand while sitting up again, Edward nods looking at the booths and jumps up, " Well! Since there's no one here, I'm going to take advantage of this free space, because Al decided to take the booth for himself!" Alphonse stutters at Edward's jab trying to think of an excuse, " I-I'm not!"

(Y/n) moves her knees so Edward could pass and deadpans at Alphonse, " You're literally manspreading right now Al. " Alphonse sighs but still stays sitting the way he was, her comment in all honesty made Alphonse feel more human. Edward stretches and makes himself comfortable on the booth behind where he originally was sitting, laying down and resting his notebook over his eyes.

Following Edward's stride, (Y/n) also gets up and claps her hands while holding seeds to make vines and wraps them on the bars on the train's ceiling, "What are you doing (Y/n)?" Alphonse asks curiously, (Y/n) only gives a tiny smirk and looks over her shoulder at Alphonse, " Don't worry about it." Edward removes his notebook from his eyes to see what (Y/n) was doing and almost choked at the sight of it.

For no reason other than she wanted to (Y/n) made an egg hammock out of vines and hopped into it, her legs hanging out the hammock's entrance as she relaxed, "That is genius! Plant alchemy is amazing. " Edward says, (Y/n) laughs swinging her legs a bit as she does.

" You mean I'm amazing." Edward playfully glares, though it was true only (Y/n) could use plant alchemy like that, it was her forte, Edward smiles and mumbles a "Whatever." While he lays back down covering his eyes with his notebook once more.

In the hammock (Y/n) traces her button eye with a frown, she didn't know how she received it both Hawkeye and Hughes told her it was there when she met them but it didn't make sense. She didn't have the button when she was in the gate, so how?

=TIME SKIP=

They make it to the coal mine and it certainly looked like the ghost town (Y/n) described it to be, " This place is pretty dead." Edward mumbles, only fatigued miners resting and the occasional stray being the only semblance of life here, " They're all so tired..." Alphonse empathizes. The soot from the coal mine was present and it was especially attracted to (Y/n)'s skin, it smearing as she wiped it but (Y/n) wasn't mad, the soot made her doll-like hands look more human.

" Ow! Hey, watch it!" Edward rubs the back of his head as he points to the boy who knocked him down with a piece of lumber, "Whoops sorry- Oh!!" The young boy named Khayal Halling looks at the three of them with stars in his eyes,

" Where are you all from!?"

" Uhm..."

"Do you want food?"

" No-"

" Do you know where you're staying?!"

" Hold on."

Khayal ignores Edward and calls out to his father, " Dad! Customers!" Edward looks at him with a glare, " Listen when other people are talking to you!" Even that fell on deaf ears when Mr. Halling appears, "Hm? What is it Khayal?" Khayal points to Edward still on the floor and (Y/n) who was examining her hand.