I give you, our first story that we're both writing together & our first Fullmetal Alchemist story. We're trying something that's been done before, but with our own twists on the story. Hopefully it will be fun for both us & you, the readers!

Please read & let us know what you think!

Disclaimer: We do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or anything connected to the manga or anime. Mara Hammer & Ollie Hunter & any characters you do not know mostly likely belongs to us.

Mara: That's right! So don't you dare copy us without the Ladies' permission!

Lady Fanuilh: Go back into the story, we're not doing this.

Mara: But it's fun!

Lady Fanuilh: Don't care.

Mara: But everybody does it!

Lady Fanuilh: Still don't care.

Mara: pouts

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Introduction

As the World Falls Down

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A young woman was quietly working at a drafting board, her head bent low over the small painting she was working on. Her concentration of her art was complete as she delicately glided the tip of her paintbrush over the canvas. Music played softly in the background, but all awareness of her surroundings had ceased to exist. Only the painting before her was her whole world.

A dull pain in the base of her neck finally made itself known and she groaned as she placed the paintbrush down. She sighed as she straightened her back and stretched the tight, sore muscles in her neck and back. A glance at the clock on the wall revealed that she had been bent over her work for too long.

Downstairs, she heard a door faintly slam and the brunette grinned. She closed the cover on her paints and picked up her brushes to wash before the paint dried on them and render them useless. She knew that there was going to be a welcomed distraction coming.

The door to the studio loft burst open with such force it hit the wall with a resounding bang and a small blur of red came rushing in.

"Ollie! You gotta check this out!" A delicate redhead exclaimed as she shoved an object into the other woman's face. "Isn't it the coolest thing you ever saw? I mean, when I saw it, I thought it was so awesome!" She rambled on excitedly without bothering to wait for Ollie to reply to her question.

"I can't tell you if you don't get that damn thing out of my face!" Ollie shot back as she shoved the offending hands out of her face with a glare but her friend wasn't frazzled at all. If anything, she was even more thrilled as her grin spread wider.

"I couldn't believe it! I mean, I only paid five bucks for it too!" The redhead squealed delightedly as she hugged the object to her chest and did a happy dance that consisted of mostly spinning around and bouncing on the spot while Ollie just rolled her eyes at her friend's actions.

"Fine, let me see it then, Mara." Ollie said, her curious interest belaying the curt words. Mara held it up, her fist covering most of it although Ollie could see sliver gleaming through the gaps of her fingers before the redhead opened her hand and let the round object fall. Ollie felt a shock as her hand jerked forward to try to catch the object before it was jerked to a stop by a chain. Ollie's eyes widened at the sight of the sliver pocket watch.

"Ooh!"

"I know! That was my reaction too!" Mara chirped as she studied it again, the smooth back with the chimera engraving on the front. "I found it in that old shop on Main, you know, that creepy little shop that seems to never be open?" Mara asked as she grasped the watch in her other hand and studied it. "I just can't seem to open it though."

"Really? Let me see it." Ollie said as she pulled her shoulder length brown hair into a loose ponytail thinking at the back of her mind that she should get it cut again. She took the watch to her artist workbench and flicked a lamp on. She studied it carefully under the light, searching for a hidden latch or something to open the pocket watch but failed to find anything; which led her to believe that it was a button at the top of the watch where the chain was connected.

"Mara?" The brunette sighed as she paused in her examination of the watch.

"Yah?"

"This would be easier to do if you weren't practically crawling onto my back." Ollie pointed out causing Mara to moved away but before long, she was huddled in close again, only this time she was pressed against Ollie's left-hand side instead of her right. Ollie gave a long-suffering sigh, but quietly resumed her work on the watch as Mara watched with bated breath.

Ollie reached over to a nearby workbench and grabbed a jeweler's tool that had somehow made its way to her side of the studio and gently pried at the sides of the watch but it refused to give. She didn't want to use more force in case she damaged the fine work. Besides, it felt like it would need more than the force of a simple tool to get it open. It was royally stuck.

"Huh… I wonder if it's broken."

"Oh! That would be so sad!" Mara cried as she laid a hand over her mouth as she looked mournfully at the beautiful sliver pocket watch. "Wanna weld it open?" She asked, all sadness gone as she eyed Ollie's brother's welding tools with a deviant look in her eyes. Ollie laughed as she replaced the tool, her left thumb running distractedly over the engraved chimera on the face.

"I can try but Tommy isn't gonna like me using his tools." Ollie warned as she allowed the watch slide from her hand and gently swing from the chain tangled around her fingers.

"When have you cared about what Tommy thinks? Come on, Ollie. Let's get that puppy open so we can see the inside. That damn shopkeeper told me it holds the key to my future and frankly, I'm curious." Mara said as she leaned against the workbench and crossed her arms as she glared at the watch swinging, glints of silver fire flashing from the sunlight straying across the loft. "Do you think you can weld it open without hurting it?" The redhead asked apprehensively as her expression changed to one that resembled a motherly hen.

"Maybe." Ollie glanced at the welding tools and then back at the pocket watch again before making up her mind. She strolled across the loft to her brother's side and grabbed a small welding tool and lit it, adjusting the small thin flame before gingerly holding it to the side of the watch where it was dented inwards. Mara followed along behind her with a delighted squeal, but she kept a safe distance from Ollie and her torch. Mara had been burned before when Ollie was trying to work with that tool.

"When I say now, push that button on the top while the metal is still soft, 'kay?" Ollie said over the soft roaring of the welding tool and Mara nodded as she got into position opposite of her by the small table, her pixie-small hands held just out of the welding tool's burning reach.

"Now!" At the brunette's shout, Mara quickly grabbed the watch, singeing her fingers in her haste as she pushed firmly on the button. For a brief moment, both women thought that they had failed when suddenly with a soft click; the latch released its hold. The cover of the watch sprang open and they leaned over it, staring in wonder at the engraved pattern on the inside lid before it started to glow a fiery blue.

"Err… I don't think that's supposed to happen!" Mara squeaked just moments before they were covered with blue light and when it faded, the studio was empty as if the brunette and redhead never existed along with the silver pocket watch.

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Uh-oh, I think Mara & Ollie got more than they bargained for!

Ollie: Danged right!

Lady Fanuilh: Not this again!

Mara: You know what to do! Push the button & leave a review for the lovely ladies!

Ollie: Yeah, 'cause otherwise we won't get to come out & play!

Lady Fanuilh: Scram!

Ahem, please leave a comment!