Melting in the heat

Tobi drug his feet through the desert sand as he walked. It was the only thing he could really do to entertain himself. After all, he was alone. He would have begged Havoc to go with him, but he'd left Central not long ago and was now somewhere out here, in the desert. Tobi sighed rather loudly. Why not? No one else was around for miles. "I hate the hot," He muttered to himself. "Why does it have to be hot? I'm the friggin' Whiteice Alchemist! I don't belong in the hot!" Still grumbling and complaining, he sat down in the sand, sighing again. "Why the desert?" He mumbled angrily. "Why the friggin' desert?"

"Why not the desert?" Yuan couldn't resist answering this persons question with one of his own. You might think it weird, that of all the space there is in the desert, Yuan found the one other person there. Well it wasn't that odd. The Xingese boy had followed the flow of chi, simple as that. Yuan stood camly in the sand, maybe four meters away from Tobi, his head inclined to one side, a perfect poker face masking his emotions.

Tobi glanced up to see who had asked the question. "Why not the desert?" He repeated slowly, "Well, I could give you ten million answers to that." Bored, he drew in the sand with his funger.

"And I could give you ten million rebudles to your answers." Yuan answered camly. "And if you don't like the desert, why come here?" half way through the sentence, Yuan became slightly distracted by his rat climbing onto his shoulder, and had to repeat what he said several times because of lapses into Xingese. "Sorry, I know I'm a bit hard to understand." Yuan apoligized.

Tobi shrugged. "I had to come here for work," He said mournfully, "I defiantly didn't want to. But, you know how that works...." He sighed again and flopped clumsily onto his back, sand rising up beside him as he landed. "Great!" He said, flailing around, "Now my uniform's all sandy! This is why I hate the desert!"

"Actually, I don't no idea how it works." Yuan stated, monotone voiced. "And if you don't want to be covered in sand, don't flop down in it." Yuan added.

Tobi gave the guy a jealous look. "You have no idea how lucky you are," He said with a groan. He sat up, dusting off his shirt. "Hey, I don't do good in the heat to begin with. The sand just adds to the Hell."

"Are you kidding me?" Alexander suddenly whined as he slid down the sand dune with ease and scowled at the second Colonel, "What're you doing here? I can't even take a walk anywhere without bumping into a bastard like you."

Yuan looked suprisedly at this new person, a questioning look on his face. Where had this guy come from? yuan then turned back to Tobi. "Yes. I'm the lucky one. Don't go saying things you don't know about." he stated with a narrowing of his eyes, without realizing, his fingers traced the scars on his neck and over his eye.

Tobi turned to Al, raising an eyebrow. "No way this is a coincidence," He observed, "I knew it. You do want me, don't you? You're stalking me now, too. Who woulda thought?" Smirking he turned back to Yuan. His eyes darkened slightly at the sight of his scars. "I wouldn't go assuming I don't know about those sort of things," He said, so quietly it was nearly inaudible. His fists clenched his fists and stood up, brushing the rest of his body off.

"Then what do you know?" Yuan raised an eyebrow, his face still a blank slate. No emotion seemed to show on his face, like a robot. "What have you gone through that is so horrible?" Yuan asked, tilting his head slightly, squinting at the sun in his eyes.

Tobi looked away. "More than you'd think," He said slowly, looking at his feet. "I have a few scars of my own, and not all of them are physical. But I don't want to talk about that." He sighed deeply and kicked the sand.

"Apparently I have more in common with you than I'd think." Yuan sighed. "I'm Yuan Yao, by the way." Yuan bowed at the waist, it seemed he was doing that a lot lately.

Tobi held out a hand for the boy to shake. "Colonel Tobi Mustang, the Whiteice Alchemist," He said automatically in a robot-like voice. He'd said this so many times, he didn't even have to think about it anymore, it was an automatic thing.

Yuan took Tobi's ahnd and shook it. Jun chattered angrily from Yuan's shoulder. "The rat's name is Fun. My apoligies." he knew very well that Tobi might stare at him for apoligizing to a rat.

Tobi blinked. "Hello, Jun," He said to the rat with a quick grin.

Jun squeaked something in whatever language it is that rats speak before dropping down into yuan's pocket, peering out at Tobi like a little kid playing hide and seek. "I sometimes wonder if she's really a rat." Yuan smiled slightly.

Tobi chuckled quietly. "What else could she be?" He asked

"I don't know! But she acts to smart to be a rat." Yuan shook his head vigorously, his pony tail smacking him in the face. "Not the smartest thing I've ever done." he blinked.

Tobi tried not to laugh. He failed and burst out laughing. "What is it with guys who have long hair nowadays?" He said when he finally got done laughing, nodding first to Yuan and then to Al. "Oh, yeah, Yuan," He said, "Alex here is a guy, I made that mistake first, too. Don't worry, Al, I'll make sure he doesn't call you a girl accidentally. Purposely, however, he can if he pleases."

"It's traditonal in Xing for boys in their 'teenage'" Yuan made quotes with his fingers ina very Amestrian gesture "to wear their hair longer." he finished camly. "And I'll be shure to if the ocasion arrises. Of course, it's doubtable. I'd prefer to not get in a fight, I've had to many of those." Yuan added, thinking back to the arguments he'd had with his friends in Xing.

Tobi laughed. "Okay, Al," He said, turning to the shorter boy, "What's your excuse?"

"yes, please explain. You've peaked my intrest." a slow smile formed on Yuan's face.

((We should wait for Alex to come back.))

((Yes, that would be helpful.))