scriveyner | Fullmetal Alchemist (Three Alchemists) - In Which Ed is Remarkably Not In Trouble [EdKit]

Title: In Which Ed is Remarkably Not In Trouble
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
AU: Three Alchemists
Characters/Pairing: Ed, Kit
Rating: T
Length: 582
Summary: "Would you put that DOWN?"

"Would you put that DOWN," Catie snapped, and Edward glowered at her, but thankfully he put the (likely very expensive, and very fragile) trinket back on the shelf.

"I don’t get why I had to come," Edward said, looking over his shoulder. The shop was small and crowded, and Catie could tell that Edward felt nervous. He jammed his hands in his pockets, shoulders up, and had the air of an animal backed into a corner. "I could have stayed outside or somethin’-"

Catie pawed through the open box of loose papers. “What happened the last time, Ed?”

Edward muttered sourly under his breath. “That wasn’t my fault.”

"You nearly took out a load-bearing wall," Catie said, pulling some loose sheets and shoving them at him. "Does this look like bits of Givry’s manuscript to you?"

"Still wasn’t my fault," Edward said, peering at the proffered pages. "Givry? That whack job? Why are you looking for Givry’s manuscript?"

Catie rolled her eyes. “Just because you’re smarter than most alchemists doesn’t mean you get to deem everyone you don’t like a whack job. Does it look like Givry to you? I’m not that familiar with his work.”

With a beholden sigh Edward took the pages and peered at them. They were old and yellowed, obviously torn from a codex of some age. “Al was the one who read through most of his stuff, said he was more about compilations of other alchemist’s work, didn’t do much of his own research.” After a long moment of silence, Edward nodded his head. “Yeah, this sounds like Givry all right. Why are you looking for bits of his manuscript?”

"Because I cracked his code, finally," Catie let the pile of torn, yellowed papers drop back into the box. She looked up at him with a smug expression. "Took me about six months to even realize there was a code, but something stuck out that bothered me and that turned out to be the key to the kingdom."

"Code?" Edward looked at the paper again. "But he didn’t even do his own research, why would there be-" Edward looked back to Catie. "He did his own research?"

"The clever fuck coded his own research into the research of others," Catie said. "There’s thinking outside the box, and then reinventing the shape of the box altogether. He’s three headaches shy of being a bigger pain in my ass than you are, and he’s been dead for fifty years."

"I can’t believe Al missed this," Edward said, slightly awed. "I can’t believe YOU found it."

"Oi," Catie said.

"So that begs the question as to why we’re rooting around in peddler markets for pages of a codex we can pull from the restricted section of the military library at any time," Edward said.

"Because the codex in the military library is the sanitized version," Catie said. "Remember how Magnus’ work had the middle ripped out? And Kelley’s? There’s something in their works that SOMEONE doesn’t want to get out." She dusted her hands off on her thighs, and then stood. "And I intend to find out what that is."