Second Story Bookstore

The woman walked past Ace without a word.

"Right, metal or earth alchemy? I've got those over here," she said as she walked between two shelves. She hunted through some books before pulling out a beginner's alchemy book. She paused a moment and looked a small pool of water beneath the book, then shrugged and headed for the cash register.

"You'll need to come up here if you plan on paying, Mr. Military Man."

Ace stared around stunned at the harsh reaction of his friend. "Miss! You do remember me, right miss?"

Ace looked for his backup Will and saw him nowhere to be found. "I. Er. What."

Ace smiled and turned around. "I need a book, miss! I must of mistaken you as someone I knew."

Des rose from his chair when the bookkeeper told him to go over to the register. As he walked past the stuttering man he snorted and approached the counter. He proceeded to pull out his wallet and opened it containing a large sum of cash. He pulled out a clean 300$ and placed it on the counter.

"This is for the hole in the wall behind you and the book you are about to hand me. Sorry to cause all the commotion."

Des waited for her to take his cash and hand him the book.

Will decided that remaining in the store was a bad idea, but yet, after what he did, that it would be bad to be caught as well. Luckily, the water erased most of that fake magic circle he had used. Unsure of what to do, he noticed the door leading to the third floor. Making sure no one saw him, he snuck into the door, and climbed the stairs. After reaching the top, he smacked his face

"What will I say if im caught up here!? Sometimes, I can be so stupid........"

The woman calmly took the money and shoved her fist in her pocket. "That book covers all the basics of alchemy. Feel free to stop by again should you ever need more advanced books." She handed him his book and turned to help the other customers.

She turned to enter the shelves of books again to find Ace, when she nearly ran headlong into him. "Ah, yes, um, book?" she stammered, surprised at his sudden appearance.

"Hi! Have we met?" Ace asked. "Regardless, I need a book on Xingese to English and more. I also need a book that teaches me how to survive without any money. By the way, this won't cost much, will it? If so, I am sure you can make a tradeoff here of some sort."

Ace spun and did a thumbs up. "I'm good for it! I am a man of honor, and I never break my word. Sometimes."

Des grabbed the book off the counter and proceeded towards the exit. He looked at the female and the handsome man once more time and snickered. Des finally began going down the spiral staircase to the first floor. He nodded to the bakery chef and exited out the doors without saying a word. The Alchemy book was firmly clenched in his hand.

(Des is out of this thread for now)

Will was panicking upstairs, unsure of what to do. He accidently bumped into a bookcase, causing a book to fall on his face. Alarmed that he might get caught from the ruckus, he jumped into a random empty box and closed the lid.

"Yes, yes, we know each other," the woman said, letting frustration filter into her voice. "And any book I have here will put you so far into the hole that you would never recover."

She stared hard at Ace, then turned away, inspecting the bullet hole in her wall. "I suppose I could let you help me in exchange for the book," she said after a moment, smiling wickedly. "This way; just don't touch anything." She grabbed a handful of M&Ms from the counter as she headed for the back of the store and the door between the bookshelves. She hurried upstairs and prayed that Ace touched nothing.

Ace smiled. "Aha, I thought we had met!"

Ace followed the girl picking up everything in sight and followed her with a handful of books and assorted items. "So where ya from?"

Will stayed completely silent in the box. He had begun to read the book that fell on him, and what it said worried him

The woman shook her head and muttered something unintelligible. She looked around the room and finally spotted what she was looking for: a large cardboard box.

"There's a costume in here. It's a giant book. Do you think you could put it on and go downtown and advertise the "Run for Cover" bookstore for me?" She reached down and opened the box. Seeing what was inside, she straitened and stared, then crossed her arms.

"Can I help you, sir?"

"I am not really sure I can do that-" Ace started then saw Will.

"Sir William!" Ace shouted and pulled him out of the box. "What has happened?"

Will was in complete shock over being found. He then decided it was best to just run. But he could never steal anything, so he slowly walked over to Rei and handed her the book.

"I had come upstairs, hoping to escape the chaos of what was going on. But, unfortunetly, I got myself into a bigger mess."

He inched closer and closer to the stairwell

"I am really sorry. I did not mean to infiltrate your room and peak into your privacy."

He bowed. Then he tried to run down the stairs

Rei grabbed Will by the arm before he got too far. "Well, looks like I have a pair of workers. One trying to buy something, one trying to pay for trespassing."

She glared at Ace, then shifted her gaze to Will. She winked, then her glare returned. "Sit in one of the chairs over there, kid," she said to Will. She handed the book costume to Ace and shoved him down the stairs. "Downtown, Ace. You want to tell everyone that the Run for Cover! bookstore is having a big sale on all their books." She shoved him out the door and closed it.

She then retraced her way up the stairs to Will. "I am curious as to why you thought hiding in a box would be better than just coming back downstairs," she laughed.

Ace walks away with the intention of doing something.

'W-well, I was worried I'd still be caught by being seen walking out of the stairwell. I thought that if I hid in a box, that I could eventually sneak out. I really am sorry for what I did......"

Will twiddled his thumbs, then looked at Rei

"How much do I have to pay?"

"The book costs thirteen dollars if that's what you mean," Rei laughed. "I wasn't serious about making you pay for coming up here. The mess downstairs was enough to drive anybody into hiding."

She sat walked over to the window and watched some birds fly by. "I am curious, though," she said, turning ever so slightly to look at him out of the corner of her eye. "Was that you who performed the transmutation down there?"

Will shivered, but kept a straight face.

"I don't believe there was a transmutation downstairs. I just simply spilt some water to make that military soldier fall. As for the book..... I don't want it to read...... I want it destroyed......."

Rei raised an eyebrow at the boy. "I never said anything about water. While we're on the topic of what we're saying, why would you want to destroy a book about farming? Think you found some dark secret that will destroy the world or something?"

(sorry, internet went all blaaaaah on me)

"Thats not the book of farming I was reading. I put that one back. This one I found upstairs. It fell on my head. It holds records no one else must see. and I mentioned the water because it was the only thing that coulda been used in alchemy at that moment. Nothing else happened"

[[ S'fine. I need to go to bed, so I'll head after this post. We can keep going in the afternoon. ^^ ]]

Rei crossed her arms and scowled. "If you found it upstairs then it's my book and it's not for sale." She held out her hand to take the book from him. "And for the record, there were a lot of things that could have been used for alchemy at that moment."

"I meant, nothing happened. I know lots of things coulda been used, but only water was spilt. nothing more"

Will hugged the book tightly

"..............."

Will took a step back.

"........................"

Will then threw the book, running out of the store.

[kk Yoyo]

Rei snatched the book out of the air and bolted after the boy. Despite being far from old and out of shape, the boy, Will, had sprightly youth, surprise, and utter fear on his side. By the time she reached the bottom of the metal staircase leading to the bakery on the first floor, the boy was long gone.

Rei grumbled and returned to her bookstore, once quiet and peaceful. She examined the room, hoping to rediscover her mug which had become lost during the events of the afternoon. Not finding it in her cursory glance, she shrugged and sat down in her chair.

She examined the book the boy had found, turning it over carefully in her hand. The boy was an odd one, certainly. He refused to admit to using water alchemy though the transmutation remained partially visible on the floor, then declared the book something that required destruction. Rei had hidden it amongst her things because it had been interesting, little more. She wondered what was going on inside the head of the small boy.

She shrugged the matter off. It mattered little to her what an adolescent child thought. She set the book down and began reading the book she had been reading before.

[[ Haha, best exit I think I've ever seen. xD; And I'm clearly doing a good job of leaving.
Also, I successfully kicked everyone out of my store, it would seem. We need more threads to wander to. ^^ ]]

Will had entered the bakery to grab another sweet for himself. As he sat to eat it, he looked at the stairs and remembered that the bookstore was up there. He wanted to apologize to the lady for how he acted, but after seeing that book, he couldn't bring himself to go back up. He ate the sweet in silence