Chapter one

(Disclaimer: I don't own FMA.)

Greed's siblings hadn't wanted him to leave Father's lair. He was supposed to guard the tunnels and make sure no one was getting in. But screw that. The only people who were about to get in there already knew it existed. If someone else somehow managed to get in they'd probably run away screaming, or be killed by the chimeras.

His siblings apparently just didn't want him to have fun. It was a lot better out here. Greed had been wandering around Central, striking up random conversations with random humans. Anytime he saw a store with something he wanted, which was frequent, he went, and started buying stuff. Ling had rotated between telling him this was stupid, and telling him what to buy next.

"Where did you get this money anyway?" Ling asked. All his currency had been Xingese.

Greed laughed as he walked out of an ice cream place. "Prince, my brother rules Amestris. I can have money if I want."

Ling was pretty sure that meant the money wasn't his, but he didn't really care. "So are you going back yet?"

"What?" Greed asked. Someone who passed him on the street gave him a weird look. "Why would I go back? Besides, I thought you didn't want to be down there."

It was boring for both of them, and they frequently ended up talking to each other when neither really wanted to.

"I don't, but you're not exactly going to Xing, are you? Besides, I think we've been out here nine hours now."

"Have we really?" Greed asked.

He hadn't actually been paying attention. He'd just been having fun. He was now carrying about ten bags slung over his shoulder, and his stomach was full of ice cream, and other food frankly. Still, he had to go back sometime. He wanted to sleep, and he had to put his bags somewhere. He had a room down in the tunnels. All the homunculi did, but theirs all seemed so empty. What was the point of having a room if you didn't fill it with stuff? This wasn't enough. He'd have to go and find more later.

Well, one way to find out how long it had been. Greed had left at around nine in the morning. He'd just find out what time it was now. He walked up to an Amestrian solider.

"Uh, Greed? I wouldn't-" Ling started.

Greed didn't pay attention. He usually didn't unless he had nothing better to do.

"Hey you!" Greed called out. "What time is it?"

The man looked at some sort of pocket watch. Not a state alchemist one. He definetly wasn't one of those.

"About six," he answered.

What do you know? Greed thought. It really has been nine hours.

"There was a clock tower right behind you," Ling told him, sounding awefully tired for a disembodied soul.

Greed straightened up. Ling could hear his thoughts directly?

"Aparently."

"Right, well, see you," Greed said to the soldier. It really probably was a good time to head back.

"Hey wait," the soldier called out.

Greed turned back, a confused expression on his face.

"You're from Xing right?"

Well he technically wasn't, but there was no point arguing that. "Yeah," Greed confirmed with a shrug.

"Oh? Can I see your papers?"

"Huh?" Papers?

"Would . . . now be a good time to mention I don't have any papers?" Ling asked. Funny, this was the most uncomfortable Greed had ever heard him sound.

"What?!" Greed shouted.

The soldier looked confused now.

"I snuck into the country," Ling answered with a mental shrug. "I'm technically an illegal alien."

"I got that!" Greed shouted. "I meant why is this only coming up now?!"

"It seemed kind of obvious. And it wasn't relevant until now."

Great, Greed thought sarcastically. Ling sure didn't seem too upset about this.

The soldier still seemed confused, but he'd at least figured out Greed wasn't here legally. "No papers huh?" he asked. He reached for his belt, or something on it.

Greed whipped around and started running away.

"Hey! Get back here!" the soldier shouted.

He called for more soldiers, and they all started chasing Greed. Greed ran down the street. He made sharp turns down other streets and smaller allies. He tripped over a garbage bag at one point and dropped some of his bags. He scrambled to pick them back up.

"Greed!" Ling yelled. "Leave them! You'd move faster without them anyway."

"I spent nine hours getting these!" Greed replied. "I'm not going back empty handed."

Holding all his bags again, he ran off again.

"You're not going back at all at this rate," Ling said. He didn't actually mind too much though. This was much more interesting than guarding tunnels no one came in.

He did turn out to be right. Greed made a few more shar turns and ran through a few more streets, jumping right over someone's cart as they tried to sell things. The person at the cart yelped and ducked. Greed had come very close to kicking him in the face.

Then he turned down an alley that ended in a fence. Greed looked at the bags in his hands. He could hear the soldiers coming closer. Maybe he could just get his ultimate shield out and fight them, but his Philosopher's Stone was pretty empty. Father had made it without many souls. He didn't want to go wasting his ultimate shield.

Greed flung his bags over the fence. He grimaced as he heard something shatter. That was probably the lamp.

Then he jumped onto the fence himself, grabbing the top. Before he could climb over, someone grabbed his jacket. It was one of the soldiers.

"Got you."

Ling mentally sighed. "Here we go again."