An Elric Cat-astrophie!

Ninja Kitty and Stealth Metal

Ed was starting to find he was enjoying his new routine with Genevieve. He'd wake up, go use the bathroom then come back and cuddle up to Genevieve until she woke up. Then came breakfast which, as mentioned before, was either nicely cooked fresh fish or last nights dinner. As he ate she'd put down a saucer of milk and eat her own breakfast, occasionally giving Ed some of her toast. Ed would then spend the morning watching Genevieve read and study. He was thankful that she let him sit on her lap or shoulder as she read but found her choice of books somewhat odd but that was nothing compared to her writing! Ed would sit and watch her write and, while her writing was very neat and more legible than Ed's, he simply couldn't read it as the words didn't seem to be in common. But, Ed being Ed, he simply couldn't give up that easily, especially when she muttered to herself about things Ed found interesting so knew her writing would be the same. Several times he almost slipped up in wanting to ask her what it was she was writing but so far she still had no idea... which mean that so far, Roy's plan was working.

Unfortunately for Ed, Genevieve was still seeing Envy and the cat was quite aware of this and what's more, he HATED it. But then one day her habit changed and she slipped out late at night. Ed followed her and found she had slipped away into the mountains. He sat at the edge of town and wondered what to do? He had no obligation to baby sit her and he wanted to prove this point to Roy... but on the same hand he wanted her to come back. So he sat there. All night long. She returned to town just before morning light. Ed had sat up and waited so he saw her return and he followed her home not that she noticed him. She let herself back into the house and went to bed. Ed hopped up the steps, wanting to mew to her to make her carry him but not wanting her to notice he'd followed her. He finally reached her room and felt exhausted as he padded across the floor to her bed. He sat and stared up at the bed, mentally cursing how high it was... as though it was mocking him. He thought about hissing at it but he was much too exhausted for that right now so yawned and then mewed softly, as best he could, to get her attention. As he had hoped, the delicate petite hand extended down from the bed and lifted him gently up as she put him on the pillow beside her. "Sorry Eddy... goodnight." she yawned, gently rubbing his head as she slowly fell asleep. Ed watched her until she passed out then he let sleep take him too.

This same bizarre pattern continued on every night for a full week before Ed said anything to Al about it. The very next night, Al followed her with Ed. Again she went out of the town and into the mountains. "I'll wait here brother, you should follow her. If she asks just meow." he advised him. Ed glared but hurried off after her before she vanished again. He followed her higher into the mountains where she finally paused to catch her breath and spotted Ed. "Eddy? You followed me all the way out here?" She asked. Ed frowned but repeated what Al had told him to say. "Meow?" he asked. "Aww Eddy. You should have stayed home... silly kitty." she said picking him up. "Well, since you're here you can help me look for papa." she said happily, cuddling him. Ed frowned, wondering what she meant. "I know it's daft to explain it to a cat but... papa is kinda poorly... mentally." she said softly as though answering Ed's silent question. Ed turned to look up at her, "Mew?" he asked but she didn't answer the way he had expected. "Father and I... we aren't from Amestris... or even the neighboring countries." she said softly, in a whisper just audible over the howl of the wind around them. Now this did catch Ed's interest. Given that Amestris was born as a military based nation, Amestris wasn't exactly friendly with it's neighbours so very little was known about what lay beyond their borders.

He strained his ears to listen to her but she didn't say much more until she stopped outside a cave. Then she gently put him down and pulled a torch from her pocket. "You don't have to come in with me if you don't want to. This shouldn't take long." she told him as she flicked the light on and stepped into the mouth of the cave. Ed sat and licked his paw, watching her slyly as she talked but the second she started walking into the opening he got up and ran after her. He stuck close to her side like a dog 'heeling' for its owner. He questioned just how stupid Genevive was as, from his point of view (as close to the ground as it was) it looked like a silly girl was going into a cave in the wilderness without anything to protect herself from whatever lurked in the darkness. Unless you included the torch or the cat. Ed didn't include himself or the torch though so as far as he was concerned she was in this alone.

Genevieve was silent as she walked through the cave. "It's deeper than the others I've explored..." She uttered. Ed looked up at her. He'd expected her to look fearful or at least show a hint of hesitation but she didn't. The look on her face was that of worry and concern. Ed sighed, though it came out as a mew and it caused Genevieve to look down at him, "It's ok Eddy. We'll go soon." She promised. Ed just hoped the mad man wasn't anywhere close by.

Finally, just when Genevieve seemed to be about to turn back, they saw some light in the cave. Ed hoped it was just outside light as he was now exhausted and wanted to sleep though he knew it couldn't be as the sun wouldn't rise for a few hours yet. It was with hesitant footsteps, that Ed should have used from the start, that he followed her towards the light. Around the corner he saw what he had hoped to find in the first place, Dr. Stine's hideout. But it wasn't what he'd expected. It was pretty bare and more like the home of a man who owned very little than a mad man. Where were the caged chimeras? Where were the kidnapped girls? It didn't make sense to him at all. If Stine was such a bad person then where was the proof of his crimes and wrong doing? And why, if he was so bad, was he acting so loving towards Genevieve? Since the old man had seen his daughter he had become ecstatic. Genevieve tried to keep him calm and after some persuasion from her he even took some medicine she'd brought.

Ed had a good look around as she talked to him but couldn't locate his body and, as the old man was totally out of his mind right now, talking with him was useless.

"Papa, I've got to go now ok? Stay hidden, stay safe, take your medicine and I'll be back later." Genevieve promised as they embraced. Dr. Stine nodded and let her go. She picked ed up gently and went back the way they had come.

It was only as they approached the town that ed worried that Al would be seen. Fortunately Al had thought of this and hidden. From Genevieve's shoulder ed could see the huge suit of armor follow them stealthily...something Ed had only ever known Al to be able to do as suits of armor aren't generally known for being silent and stealth like. When Genevieve got back to the house she took Ed up to her room and went to bed. Ed waited until she was asleep then snuck out to talk to Al in the quiet of the vacant living room as all downstairs seemed to be empty. Ed told Al everything, well, everything he thought was important. He told Al where to find the cave, how far in his hideout was and that he was unarmed. After the talk, Al carried the now very sleepy Ed-kitty back up to Genevieve's room for a well deserved sleep.