Author's Note: Basically (not to sound big headed or anything) any stories I've published recently seems to get hits but no reviews, so I have no idea what people think of it, and as much as I like this idea for a fanfic, I may have to give up writing it. I have a lot of exams at the moment, and I don't think I can write and publish something that does not really have an audience, so if you like it please review it because it will give me more inspiration and motivation to write more and publish more of it thank you :)

Summery: It's been two years since Edward returned from the other world. He's grown up, as has his family and friends. Life has been quiet and regular, a peace that he, nor anyone else, wanted to change. Unfortunately, since the revival of Ishbal, the revival of old hates came with it, over the passed four years there had been more attacks on the capital of Central, mostly from that of Ishbal, but also a few from the survivors of Lior and so on. So when a girl of dark skin, in dark glasses at night and gloves in summer appears, is Edward wrong in suspecting her? Or are her secrets bigger than he first imagined?

Rays Of Bitter Sun Light

Two years had gone past since Edward's return from that other world… two years. He still remembered the people who had been good to him there, the other Alphonse, the other Gracia… and so many other's besides. He still thought of them time to time. He even thought of his father, the man who gave up his life to ensure that Edward could return home. He no longer had any hate for the man, he couldn't hate him any more. Because of him he was home with his family, his beloved faithful brother, insane violent friend, strange foe/friend of a now brigadier general Mustang, and so many of the others that he had missed more than he ever imagined.

Those two years things had gone by pretty slowly. He stayed working for the military, he knew nothing else! He no longer worked as a weapon, but as a protector or researcher for the army. At twenty years old he was still one of the youngest members of the military of Amestris, and well respected for it. His reputation as the Full Metal Alchemist proceeded him where ever he went, and he was still known as the Alchemist of the people.

It wasn't just him that had changed and developed, Winry had now become the final word in automail mechanics, though she could pretty much make anything work (usually improve) and was well known for not only being fair priced, but always did impressive work. Even the military enlist her help for machines, though she tended to only agree to work if they were used for defence rather than offence. Mustang had once commented that it was Edward's influence, only to have Riza Hawkeye tell him it was probably the other way round!

Alphonse had grown up into a relatively tall fourteen year old, two years older than when his brother had joined the military. He was adamant about joining as well, as soon, but they refused to accept his entry, insisting he was too young. Though, through Mustang, they had agreed to test him once he had turned sixteen. Though he complained, he knew it was better than nothing. But he had yet to get Edward's blessing on the whole matter. His older brother still insisted he needed to wait till he was much older before he decided. Alphonse may have been more gentle than his brother, but he was just as stubborn.

It was probably because of his almost obsessive studying that that the events that happened actually happened. It had been late one night near the end of spring, Alphonse had been practically thrown out of the alchemist library (having been given special permission by Edward and explicit instruction by Mustang) and told to go home and eat. Alphonse was in a good mood, his studies had made a big impact on his actual practise of alchemy. His standard was beginning to resemble that of his brother's at that age.

Once outside he paused to look up at the building. He had grown up… twice around this building… defeated corrupted alchemists and homunculi because of the research here. It was a big part of his life, even if it had once been burnt down then rebuilt.

"Shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck," he heard dimly on the night air. He frowned looking around, it wasn't usual to hear someone near the library so late.

He finally caught sight of a girl, dressed in loose jeans and a tight fitted long top, the colours were not recognisable in the dim lighting of the crescent moon. He didn't recognise her. She was looking around and trying to see street names in vain looking utterly lost.

He watched her for a few moments, then caught her sitting down beside a suit case and a rucksack, head in her hands. Pausing for just a moment, he made up his mind. The girl clearly needed help and was very obviously lost.

He walked over to her timidly, she was still cursing under her breath softly.

"Uh… excuse me?"

She looked up. He couldn't make out her features very well, but he could see that she was wearing sunglasses. So late at night? That didn't make sense… perhaps she had not been all that bothered about taking them off previously.

"Are… you lost?" he asked.

She nodded, hanging her head. "Second time I come back here and I am ridiculously lo-" all of a sudden there was a large rumble… coming from her apparently little body. "Lost and hungry…" she finished miserably. "I don't know where I am, I need to find a place to stay and I need fo-" She cut herself off and shook her head then looked up at Alphonse again. "I'm sorry… I've been running around all day… I'm kinda tired."

Alphonse studied her hunched up figure. Immediately he got the same feeling he had when he found a lost kitten. He had to help her.

"Come on, let's get something to eat," he said, smiling.

Her head shot up again. "What? Are you serious?"

"Of coarse! My treat, this is my town after all."

"But you don't kno-"

"That doesn't matter," he shrugged, "come on, I know a good place to eat."

He couldn't see her eyes, or her facial expressions very clearly… but he could practically feel the appreciation radiating off the girl. But when she spoke he could tell she was smiling. "Thank you!" she cheered, getting up, shouldering her rucksack and grabbing her bag, "I'm sorry… what's your name?"

"Alphonse," he smiled, taking her bag for her, though she was a little indecisive about relinquishing it. Though the fact that she chose to did tell Alphonse a lot about her… to begin with- he did not dare run off with her bags.

"I'm Lucy," she said happily, "and I think I more or less owe you my life."

*

Winry didn't exactly have a house, it was a two floor apartment with part of it a small bedroom and bathroom for a lodger above her mechanics shop. Considering how famous she was, she was doing well paying off the mortgage on the place, and soon it would be entirely hers. Until then she had a lodger (Erica) and a lot of late nights working.

That night in particular, Edward had come over to wait for Alphonse and scavenge some food off his blonde friend. He had wandered into the workshop and looked around with a certain bored curiosity. He had never really understood her obsession with prosthetic limbs, though he was definitely grateful for it.

"Wha'cha doing," he asked, mildly, walking over to her, "it's late… and it;s dinner time."

"Working, like how Al is working- so ssshht," she looked up at him, he almost burst out laughing. On her face were what looked like large heavy glasses, that enlarged her eyes inhumanly. They were to see small things more clearly, but it was still funny.

She caught the hidden laugh. "SHut up," she growled.

"Awh- you're not-" the door opened and the foot steps of two people walked in, "sorry! We're closed," he called looking over, "oh- it's you! You're back…" he trailed off as he caught sight of a girl standing beside him, one hand on her stomach, the other looking around the shop in utter astonishment. "Who's that?" he asked sharply.

The girl jumped and looked at him. She was dark. Like an Ishballan, but fairer than the Ishballan were. Her features were more or less the same as well, but for the small nose and mouth. Her eye however, were hidden by glasses. He frowned. Why was she wearing glasses? No Ishballans wore glasses any more- not unless they had something to hide.

Though Edward fought the military reaction to be suspicious, it was hard. Wearing dark glasses at night and wearing full sleeves and… yes, she was wearing gloves too. It all indicated hiding something.

"She's Lucy," Alphonse was saying stubbornly, by now Winry had become interested as well, "and she needs help."

The girl flushed red. Edward didn't trust it. "It's ok… I'll be fine on my own," it sounded as though she'd said this to him many times since they had met.

"No you won't, it sounds like you haven't eaten for a week," Alphonse said stubbornly, "and we need to find you a place to stay."

"It's besides the point," grumbled Lucy quietly, "but two days…"

There was a thump and the sound of a chair knocking to the floor. "Two days!" shrieked Winry, "two days?!"

"Yes two days," Lucy replied, staring at her. What Edward picked up on, but the other two didn't was the whispered, "what is there an echo in here?" simply because he had learned to lip read. She was more sarcy than first appeared too…

"Two fucking days…" Winry shook her head, then stormed over to Alphonse and Lucy, Alphonse suddenly looked afraid. "Al, take her bags- both of them."

"Yes ma'am," he replied immediately, taking her rucksack off her arm.

"Wait- what- wait!" stammered Lucy, unable to do anything.

"You're eating here," snapped Winry, "two days with no food… I'm surprised you haven't passed out yet!" She grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the shop and up the stairs.

"But I-"

"My name is Winry"

"Ok but-"

"I'm not hearing any excuses! I just hope Ed hasn't finished the fridge."

"Hey!" complained Edward, but the girls had disappeared into the flat. All Edward could do was stare. He turned on Alphonse who had shouldered the girl's rucksack and picked up her bag. "Al…" he sighed, "how many times do I have to go over this with you-"

"I know people aren't cats, and we can't help out everyone. But hers is more simple!"

"All right… let's hear it…"

"She's moving to Central, and she's been wandering around Central all day, completely lost, she's not used to how it works here, she's been travelling all over the world, even to Xing and further!"

"She's been to the north?"

"Knows major Armstrong's sister… vaguely anyway."

"Didn't know he had a sister…" muttered Edward.

"He's got two- just don't bring it up with Havoc. But older brother… she… she just needs some food and help to find a place to stay."

Edward scowled. "At this time of night? No decent place will take her in!"

"I was thinking… where we're staying…"

"Georgie will blow her top if we bring someone back," Edward grumbled, referring to the hotel's manager, who had gotten to know the Elric brothers quite well, "she's fussy you know that."

"We have to find some where," Alphonse was being stubborn, "the girl doesn't exactly look very strong, and I'm not leaving her to fend for herself."

"We're not adopting her," Edward sighed and shook his head as Alphonse just stared at him. "Al… where is she from?"

"I don't know… but she's probably an Ishballan- you know, not all of them have found a place to settle down and Central is as good place as any-"

"She's not Ishballan."

"But she's dar-"

"Not that dark."

"And her eye-"

"She cover's her eyes. I hope she's not Ishballan… they don't cover their eyes any more. At least not the ones that have nothing to hide."

Alphonse stopped. He frowned. Edward wasn't… no that wasn't fair.

Recently there had been a few attacks on Central from still angered Ishballans, ones that had not been accepted back home, or those who had lost families over the war time period and afterwards too. The most recent one had been an attempt on the alchemists library. All those arrested were Ishballans who wore sunglasses to hide their eyes, a symbol from the old days of oppression.

"You can't think…" Alphonse said quietly.

"I don't know," Edward said stonily, "I don't like what's happening here, Al… it's just strange, and right now, strange doesn't mean good."

Alphonse sighed. "Just give her a chance. She only here for the moment, and she hasn't done anything to make you suspicious of her."

"Not yet anyway."

Al growled. "You've become so suspicious since joining to military! Couldn't she just be a lost girl who needs our help? She doesn't look much older than me!"

Edward sighed. Al had made up his mind. There was very little that was going to make him budge. Besides it wasn't like he was going to offer her a place to stay with them. Even if they had a place. He understood humans could not be 'kept' as it were.

"All right… fine… I'll be nice."

Alphonse grinned. "Thanks, big brother."

Meanwhile, upstairs, Winry had sat the still protesting Lucy down on a seat and put about five slices of pizza in front of her, and a large glass of water and a cup of tea beside that.

"Eat that," grinned Winry, "two days without food, it'll do you good."

"Winry… I can't… I don't even know you guys…"

"Hey- you're a person, you need help. You might not meet a load of people like Al who will insist on looking after someone. But you got lucky. We'll help you out. Trust me, I know what it's like to be brand new to a city like Central. It wasn't fun."

Lucy stared at her. Winry couldn't see her eyes, but that didn't matter. She could understand the shock Lucy was feeling without the need to see her eyes. The rest of her face helped with that

"You know what… thanks," Lucy smiled, "guess I'm not used to people being so nice." She made a start on the first slice, getting through about half of it quite quickly.

Winry watched her, looking almost motherly. "By the way, which arm is it?"

Lucy looked at her frowning, and swallowed the last bit of the first piece hard. "What?"

"The automail, which arm?"

She stared. "How could you tell?"

"Well I am a mechanic, one your arms are functioning different to each other. That means one of two things, either the automail arm works really well and your normal arm is hurt, or the automail arm has defunct and your normal arm is fine."

Lucy put down the half od the second piece and pulled off her left glove, and pushed up the left sleeve revealing a slender automail arm. It was unusually slim, but it fitted Lucy perfectly. It had a slight coppery colour, but that mostly indicated that it had titanium within it, making it durable and strong, and adaptable for colder regions. It was a fine piece of work… sort of anyway.

"Can I have a look?" Winry asked, "I'll figure out what's wrong with it."

"Oh- I got into a fight a few days back, punched the man in the jaw. Shattered his jaw, but fucked the automail a bit." She rolled her eyes. "The last mechanic I had look at it botched the job."

Winry grinned. "Just lemme have a look."

"Long as I can still eat."

While Lucy attacked the food again, getting through it quite quickly, Winry examined the arm. Not only was it light and durable for all kinds of weather, the elbow had been made to be double jointed, and could clearly be removed. Though it would have been painful to replace. Unfortunately, the rest of the arm was relatively mediocre. The suspension in her wrist was on it's last legs, they creaked a little too much and were to stiff. From the looks of thing, her shoulder looked painful to move as well.

She took one last look at her wrist again, and this time noticed something in her palm. She frowned. If she didn't know any better she would have said it was a transmutation circle. But it couldn't have been.

"Lucy-" she stopped herself and stared. Lucy had finished off the plate of pizza slices, and the tea and was now half way through the glass of water.

"Yeah?" Lucy looked at her, then looked at her plate and flushed red, "guess I was hungrier than I thought I was…"

"I am not surprised, where the hell were you coming from?!"

"Lior," she rolled her eyes, "the slow train. But it was worth it- I'm here now."

"Lior… is that where you had the last mechanic have a look at it?"

She nodded, as Winry let her cover her arm again and replace her glove. "Highway robbery for nothing," she snarled to herself, picking up the glass of water again, "but it needed to be done."

Winry frowned to herself. "Tell you what… I can fix your arm up for you if you want."

"But I don't ha-"

"People pay me in instalments," grinned Winry, "automail isn't cheap, but it's useful as hell. I mean… I'd rather make you something new, I could improve on what you've got… but that would take a while…" she looked thoughtful. "Yeah, for the moment I'll just fix up your current model, and I'll make you a brand new one!"

"What? Why?!"

"Because she loves doing that," Edward and Alphonse had entered the flat, Alphonse had set the bags by the sofa. Edward had spoken, but he was practically glaring at her. "She's Winry Rockbell, famous automail mechanic, know from here to Rush Valley and beyond. I'm sure you've heard of her."

"I figured that when I saw the shop," Lucy replied brightly, she looked at Winry again, "but I can't afford new automa-"

"Look, it's a chance for me to have an experiment. And you can pay for the new stuff, repairs are much cheaper. Besides, new limbs take me ages to make, I'm a perfectionist- ask Ed! I have to work on his arm and leg almost every week."

"Hey! I have a dangerous job! It's sort of expected," Edward growled.

Lucy looked thoughtful. "All right," she smiled, "but we'll talk about it in the morning…" she trailed off as if something had hit her. She turned around slowly, frowning at the chain hanging out of Edward's pocket. "Uh… is that… that chain…"

Edward frowned. "This?" he pulled out his State Alchemist watch.

Lucy's eyes widened. "Oh… you're that state Alchemist… Elric the fullmetal alchemist… youngest alchemist ever…" she shook her head. "Sorry, I travel too much for to much news to get to me," she smiled, "and I haven't seen a watch like that for years…" her eyes never left the watch.

Edward walked forewords and held it out to her. She looked up surprised, but shook her head.

"Thanks, but it's better if I don't," she said mildly, "my dad… he was a state alchemist, he was killed about fourteen years ago."

"State alchemist? Would I have heard of him?"

"Doubtful, he wasn't very well known like the crimson or flame alchemists. He was the chemical alchemist." She chuckled to herself, but shook her head.

"You know… I work for the flame alchemist," he said slowly.

"Really? Must be fun," Lucy's voice seemed to have trailed off. She shook her head. "Sorry," she said, bright as ever, "going off down memory lane. Dad just hated it if I ever took his watch, kept telling me off, saying that I'd do something silly with it."

Edward laughed. "I know that feeling," he looked pointedly at Winry.

"Oh shut up," Winry rolled her eyes, "Lucy, I think it's time you went to sleep, you don't look so good."

"I feel fine, I'm just tired."

"So go to sleep."

"Where?"

Winry sighed. Clearly this girl was slow when she was tired. "Where else? Here."

"What?!" this came from both Lucy and Edward.

To Edward this was simple stupidity on Winry's behalf. She rarely took people in like this, normally it was Alphonse. But now she was acting out of her own free will! It made no sense. How well had she gotten on with this girl?!

Lucy on the other hand just looked utterly perplexed.

"You don't have to- I'll find some where-"

"Where?!" interrupted Winry, "it's eleven o'clock at night, you're exhausted, you've just eaten your first meal in two days and you're carrying two bags that contain everything you own. You're going no where. We'll find you somewhere to stay in the morning. Alphonse and Edward can check with the staff at their hotel tomorrow morning, they'll have a vacancy at least for a little bit." Winry had spoken. That was the end of it. Edward had nothing more to say, he just stood there and frowned. The blonde girl smiled, and helped Lucy to her feet. "Now then, you can sleep in my room tonight, the bed's big enough, and I want to keep an eye on you. Edward- bring the cases."

"But-"

"Now!"

Edward sighed, and grabbed the bags from Alphonse and followed the two females in. One minute later he was kicked out as Winry insisted that Lucy needed to get changed. Not a moment later, Winry followed, looking a little confused.

"She's got something to hide…" grumbled Edward sitting at the table.

"Leave her alone, she's just shy," snapped Winry, "besides she's clearly been through a lot."

"She's wearing long sleeves and gloves in summer and dark glasses at night," Edward retorted.

"Big brother come on… not all people have something to hide."

"Look, I've seen way too many attacks on this city recently. I don't care if they're Ishballan or otherwise, if someone's suspicious, they need looking into."

"You can just pick on her-"

"It's all right," said a soft voice.

All three spun round. Edward's face flushed.

"It's all right," Lucy smiled. She was still wearing her glasses. "It's his job right? State alchemist… you have to look after the state… dad always said that he was a dog of the military… I guess even after the shift in power somethings don't change…" She looked at Edward. He couldn't see her eyes, but somehow he did not get the feeling they were friendly. "You can research me. I don't mind, I've got nothing to hide." She yawned, and almost toppled backwards. Shaking her head, she turned around to go back to her bed for the night. As she left Edward could have sworn he head her mutter, "and don't argue so loudly."

"See!" snarled Winry, "now get out and go home, there's food for you in the fridge. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Yes ma'am…" the boys muttered.

Winry joined Lucy, as Edward and Alphonse raided the fridge. Alphonse was looking thoughtful, while Edward muttered darkly to himself. Why did he have the nagging feeling that everything was going to get bent out of shape soon?