A/N: A few things you should bear in mind as you read this fic: First of all, it follows Brotherhood canon (obviously). Also, in this fic's timeline, Edward and Winry got married when they were 20 (in 1919) and their first child was born two years later (1921).

I hope you enjoy this fic! I would love to receive your reviews.

Special thanks to lalikaa from tumblr for beta-ing this chapter!

She slowly opened her eyes; she was lying in a narrow alley. It was dirty, humid, and smelled like blood; she quickly realized the copper stench belonged to her. She blacked out for a few moments, but when she started back into consciousness she saw her legs and remembered. She grabbed her hair; it was black. The unfamiliar colour triggered the memory of the words of the cruel agreement she had made, and it rang inside her head. She felt like crying, but she didn't have the power to do even that.

"Am I dying?" She thought, blood flowing freely from her veins at a rapid rate. She was sure it was just a matter of time. Her heart was stubborn, thinking that she was too young, that she had things to do.

Her mind, however, was fully aware of the situation.

There was nothing that could be done.

February, 1933

"I can't believe you did it again!" A young golden-haired boy yelled. "I told you to stay away from my music notes. What's wrong with you?"

A somewhat smaller girl was sitting before him, holding a small dog made from paper and giggling. "Well, I made them prettier, didn't I, Brother?"

"I'm going to destroy you and your stupid alchemy!" he shouted. "You always, always mess with my things and I've never messed with yours! You're being mean!" he added, leaning forward to pull her braid.

"H-hey, stop, it hurts!" she cried, and kicked his leg. Her brother gave a shout of pain.

"What's going on in here?" a woman's voice called, running into the living room of the house, where the children were currently arguing.

"Mum! Trisha ruined my music notes!"

"It's not true, I was going to turn them back to normal! I can do that, you know," Trisha pouted.

Winry sighed. "Trisha, I've told you a million times to stop teasing James like that. His music notes are important to him and it is inconsiderate to mess with them. And in general, no matter how amusing your dad may find it, you shouldn't do alchemy on other people's things," she said. "Do you understand?"

The girl lowered her head. "Okay." She turned to James. "Hey, I'm sorry, okay? I'm going to turn it back to normal. I was going to, anyway. You didn't need to call me mean."

"I'll turn it back myself," he yelled. He grabbed it from her hands and stormed off to his room.

"I just wanted to play," Trisha said exasperatedly, turning to her mother.

Winry stroked her hair. "I know, but you know it bothers James. You should find other games to play with him."

All of a sudden, the front door opened. "I'm home!" a man called, striding into the living room. "Your favorite dad is here, bringing you awesome food for lunch! And I got choc- hey, what's wrong?" he said, seeing his daughter's unhappy expression.

"I made Brother sad," Trisha replied, looking at the floor. "I didn't mean to, I'm sorry, I-"

Her dad knelt down next to her and lightly pulled her ear. "Did you apologize, you cute little trouble-maker?"

"Yeah, but he got even angrier," she pouted.

"Where is he, Winry?" Ed asked, turning to his wife.

"I think he went to his room." Winry aimed a light punch to his arm. "It's your fault, you know, Ed," she groaned. "If you didn't laugh every time Trisha did alchemy on James's things, she wouldn't be encouraged to do it all the time."

Ed sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean," he turned to Trisha, "It is kind of funny, but don't do it again, okay? Would you like it if he messed with your drawings?"

"Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't," she admitted. "But he doesn't need to call me mean or call my alchemy stupid!"

Ed and Winry looked at each other, stifling laughter. Fights between their children happened all the time, so they were used to it; it had been the same between Ed and Al when they were younger. They found it normal and at times funny. Still, they couldn't stand seeing either of their children sad, so they always did their best to cheer them up.

"Hey, Trisha," Ed said. "Why don't you invite Clemence over to play with you, while I go make your brother feel better?"

The girl smiled. "Alright!" she yelled happily, rushing over to the phone.

Clemence was Trisha's best friend. They had known each other since they were toddlers; Clemence's father used automail and was Winry's client. As he and his wife were merchants, they spent a lot of time working far away from their home, so their daughter would often stay with the Elrics. Neither Ed nor Winry minded; they loved having children around, so having another child in their home was never a problem. In fact, Ed taught Clemence about alchemy along with Trisha and James, and Winry was always eager to show the kids the automail basics. Clemence preferred alchemy, though. Actually, she was obsessed with it, and always spent her time with Trisha in Ed's library reading alchemy books. Trisha adored alchemy as well, and grasped hard concepts quickly; having a former-alchemist dad definitely helped, though she also loved helping her mother with automail.

James didn't care a lot about automail or alchemy, but he was a prodigy in music. From a very young age, he created his own melodies and played them on the old piano Ed had found in the Rockbell's warehouse. Ed and Winry were very proud of his talent; they both loved music, and Ed had always wanted to learn how to play when he was younger. However, he was always hindered by the fact that his right arm was somewhat weaker than his left one.

Ed taught alchemy to all three children. Even though he couldn't do it himself, he loved explaining the theory. He also showed his kids how they could use it for fighting, much to Winry's disapproval. He usually tried to explain its medicinal uses too, but this was Al's specialty, so it was Al who taught them alkahestry whenever he came to visit from Xing.

Ed's alchemy lessons began with his "All is One, One is All" philosophy. Truly, experience had shown him that this was the most important teaching of alchemy. By understanding it, his kids would never, ever consider to commit taboo, like he and his brother had done. He couldn't possibly explain exactly what happened when someone did human transmutation –he was talking to kids. James was 13, while Trisha and Clemence were both 12. He thought that the full truth would traumatize his children and thus, they should learn about it when they were somewhat older; maybe he should wait for a couple more years. Of course, he hadn't told them what he and Al had done. He felt they would hate him for that. They wouldn't be wrong to do so.

"James, come downstairs!" Winry yelled. "What are you going to do?" she asked Ed, lowering her voice.

"First of all, I'll give him some chocolate," he said, smiling widely. "And then, I'm going to take him out and play catch with him, and hug him and tell him how great he is and-"

Winry gave him a warm grin. "You're such a silly dad," she said. "You remind me of Mr. Hughes."

"What's the problem with playing with your absolutely cute kids? Hey, kiddo!" he called to James, who had now arrived downstairs. "I have something that you might like here!"

Trisha was sitting outside the house, waiting for Clemence to come. When she spotted her in the horizon, she rushed to her and hugged her tightly. "Hey, hey, how are you?" she said happily.

Clemence grinned. "I'm fine," she replied. "Just a little tired, because I've been doing homework all afternoon."

"We had homework?!" Trisha gasped, as they were walking towards the house. "I totally forgot."

"Do you want me to help you with it?" Clemence asked.

"Well... I'm too bored to do it now," she said and giggled, making Clemence laugh too.

"Any news?" Clemence questioned. "Are we going out with Jim and Sam tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I think we should," Trisha said, thoughtfully. "They're our boyfriends, so if we ignore them, they'll think we don't want them anymore," she said and laughed.

All of a sudden, a clearly frightened James rushed out of the house. Ed, wearing the helmet from a suit of armor, was chasing him, and both girls laughed at the sight. "Hey, James, we're gonna help you defeat the armor monster!" Trisha yelled, and jumped on her dad, making him fall on the ground laughing.

"Well, you aren't so strong now, are you, monster?" James yelled, and went to tease his dad as well.

Clemence stood by and smiled widely. She adored the Elrics; it was the family she had always wanted. She hated that her parents were always absent, but Trisha's family offered her so many happy moments so that she never felt alone.

Yeah, she was really glad to be part of this family.

"Hey, Clemence, James," Trisha had told them later that night, as they were stargazing. "We're really lucky."

"Hm?"

"I mean…" She sighed. "There are kids that are going through hard stuff in this world. Poverty, war… some kids are alone and helpless, too," she continued. "We are so lucky to have each other."

James laughed. "What's with this all of a sudden?"

Trisha smirked. "I think about this whenever I fight with you, Brother," she confessed. "We always get angry about stupid things, and it makes me sad. But we love each other a lot, and I'm really grateful for that."

Clemence giggled, and James groaned. "Then you might just as well stop making me mad at you," he said. "Careful, one day I might get really angry with you and leave you."

Trisha stuck her tongue out at him. "You're silly," she yelled. "You couldn't survive one day without me."

April, 1933

It was a spring afternoon. It was hot, but there was a soothing breeze that made the heat bearable.

Trisha and James were lying on the grass, relaxing. It was one of their beloved lazy afternoons, when it was too hot to do anything; neither homework, nor games. James, as the older brother, would always scold Trisha for dozing off all the time, but on days like this, he would join her.

Everything was calm. A few birds were singing far away and the air created songs when it was passing through the trees. Closer to him, Trisha was humming a melody; she would always hum the same tune, ever since she was a toddler. It was very peculiar how she had come up with it without having heard it anywhere, and was always singing it when she was bored. Her melody conveyed mixed feelings; it filled ones' heart with love, but at the same time, it felt like a farewell to a soldier marching towards death.

It never made them feel sad, though.

Lying down along with them was their dog, Lilly. She was the daughter of their parents' dog, Den, who had passed away a few years ago– she lived a long life though, and was close to them in their first moments of life. Lilly was about three years old; Den had her with Jim's –Trisha's boyfriend's- dog during the last year of her life. Lilly was very playful and followed the kids wherever they went. Some days, she waited for them outside school until their classes were over.

"Aren't you hot?" James asked her. "Take off your jacket, you'll get all sweaty."

"I don't want to," she said calmly. "It's dad's jacket. I love it."

James smiled. They'd seen photos of their father with this jacket when he was younger, but ever since James was born, this jacket had served as a blanket for the kids. Ed adjusted it to their body size as they grew up, and one of them was almost always wearing it. Since James didn't like wearing intensely bright colors though, he let Trisha wear it most of the time.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps. They slowly rose up, and saw their parents running towards them. Their faces were pale, which frightened them. What was wrong? Did something happen to Uncle Al or Aunt Mei?

"Trisha, James," Winry said, distressed, and caressed their heads. "Why don't you go visit Clemence for a little while?"

Trisha's eyes widened. "Mom, what's wrong? What happened?" Her gaze alternated between each of her parents. "Is something wrong?" she asked again, her voice reaching an octave higher.

Ed looked down. "Clemence's parents… They –They were in a train accident."

James clenched his fists. Trisha gasped, and her eyes started to tear up. "You –you mean… they…" She couldn't finish her sentence.

Ed nodded silently.

"No! It can't be…" Trisha knelt, burying her face in her hands. "They –they were so young!"

Ed forced a smile. "Trisha, my love," he said in a weak voice, "Death… Death doesn't care if you're young or old."

"It isn't fair!" James yelled.

"They didn't deserve it!" Trisha added.

A tear fell down Winry's cheek. "Kids," she said, "not everything that happens in life is fair."

"But what about equivalent exchange?" Trisha cried. "You get what you give, right? Right?"

Ed sighed. "Equivalent Exchange is a concept of alchemy." He looked at her and grinned. "It… It doesn't work in life," he continued, "or, at least, it doesn't work as we imagine it would."

The kids remained silent. "C'mon, Trisha," James said after a few moments. "Let's visit Clemence."

Clemence was sitting on her house's staircase. The ribbons that usually decorated her rich, brown hair were lying beside her, torn up; Trisha figured that she must have taken her anger out on them. "Clemence," she said, calmly. "We came to-"

"So you heard?" the girl said so harshly that Trisha was taken aback.

"Yeah," she replied. "We came to see how you a-"

"I don't need your pity," Clemence said coldly.

"I don't pity you, Clem," Trisha said gently. Her friend had never spoken to her in such a tone. She was always warm and kind. Trisha couldn't possibly understand how she felt, but she could tell that something inside her had broken. "I just came to try and make you feel a little better."

"I don't need anything from you!" Clemence cried. "Go away!"

"But Cl-", she tried to say, but James stopped her. "Let's go," he whispered. "We'll come back later. She needs some time alone."

Trisha nodded.

She gave Clemence a long, warm hug, and then she followed her brother.

August, 1933

Trisha was walking happily towards Clemence's house, holding a basket full of tasty food. She had been bringing her best friend food ever since her parents had died; actually, the Elrics had proposed for her to stay with them until she found some other relatives to take care of her, but she refused. Trisha had hoped that her friend would cheer up somehow after some time had passed, but she was always cold and aloof now. She didn't blame her –she was going through quite a lot. She needed her time. Trisha had noticed that Clemence was reading lots of books, and was constantly visiting the local bookstore and the library, so she hoped that her friend would find some support through fiction.

"Hey, Trisha!" she heard a voice. It was Jim, waving from a field nearby; he was working with his dad, who was a farmer. Trisha waved back cheerfully. She was in a great mood at the time; her parents and James had gone to East City to sign him up for a music school, and she was home alone, free to do alchemy on anything she wanted. She also cooked Clemence's meal herself, and she was really proud of it.

As she reached Clemence's house, she noticed that all the windows were closed. "Weird," she thought. "It's long after noon. Hasn't Clemence woken up yet?"

Trisha opened the door –Clemence always left it unlocked for the Elrics to come. There wasn't any risk of being robbed in a village as small as Resembool anyway. The lights of the living room were off, so she imagined Clemence would be in her room. "Clem!" she yelled. "It's Trisha! I brought you food!"

She received no answer, which she found very worrying. She left her food basket on the floor and rushed upstairs. "Clem?" she shouted. Trisha went towards her best friend's room. "Clem! " She opened the door. "Clem, are you he-"

Trisha's eyes widened and her legs started shaking. In front of her was Clemence, lying on the floor in the middle of a transmutation circle, covered in blood.

"Clemence!" Trisha cried in despair, rushing towards her. She put her hand on her neck, checking for a pulse. She was alive. "Clemence," she said in a weak voice. "Clemence, answer me, please, Clem-"

Then, she saw them.

At the other side of the room stood two monsters; they were extremely skinny humanoids, to the point that their bones were easily visible. Their skin was dark, but not naturally; it was as if they were covered in something– it could be dirt, but it could be blood as well.

What is going on? What is this?

Her breath was faster and she was on the verge of crying. It was as if she was trapped in some kind of horror movie. "C-Clem!" she yelled, as the monsters started walking towards her. "W-Wake up! They'll harm you! Clem!"

Clemence wasn't responding. Trisha quickly looked around and spotted a wooden hanger and she grabbed it. Without a second thought, she drew a transmutation circle with the blood that was on the floor, and used it to turn the hanger into a shaft. Barely able to breathe, Trisha rushed to protect her, and stabbed one of the monsters with the shaft; it collapsed on the floor, and the other monster stood back.

"Clem," she said in such a weak voice, that she was barely heard. "Clem, please, wa-"

Clemence's lips moved. "P-Please," she moaned. "A b-bandag-"

"Yes, yes, I'm bringing you one immediately," Trisha said. Clemence was bleeding from her belly. Not seeing a bandage anywhere close, she grabbed Clemence's blanket, tore it up and wrapped it around the wounded area. "You'll be fine," Trisha said, trying to believe it herself. "You'll-"

Clemence started opening her eyes. "A-Are they here?" she said with all the power she had left.

Trisha didn't understand. "Who?"

Clemence moaned. A tear fell from her eye. "I see," she whispered. "I get it now."

"What do you get? What happened? Clemence!" Trisha cried.

Powerless, Clemence closed her eyes.

When she woke up, she was at Trisha's house. She was covered in blood-stained bandages.

"Trisha?" she asked.

"Oh dear, you're finally up," Trisha said, and rushed towards her. "I was so worried, you were…" Her eyes were full of tears. "There –there were two monsters, I managed to kill them, but I was so-"

"You killed them, huh?" Clemence said indifferently and sighed. "I have to make a phone call."

"Okay, help yourself, I-"

"Don't tell anyone about this," Clemence interrupted her abruptly. Trisha had never seen her like that. Her face was pale and her eyes were dead; it was as if someone had sucked all the life from inside her. Her parents' death had definitely made her more distant and cold, but judging from their latest encounters, Trisha had thought she was slowly recovering.

She was also curious about Clemence's call. Who would she call? She didn't have anyone beside the Elrics, did she?

"I did it," she said to whoever she was talking to. "I understand what you were saying. Come pick me up." Pause. "Okay."

"Come pick me up?" Where was she going? Wh-

"You were eavesdropping," Clemence yelled.

"I-I'm sorry," Trisha gasped. "I didn't mean to be intrusive, I was just wor-"

"I'm going to go clean up my house," Clemence said, rushing towards the front door.

These were the last words Trisha heard from her. The next day, when she went to deliver her food, there was nobody in the house; there were no clothes in her closet either.

She had left.

"Hey, Trisha!" Jim had waved at her again, while she was on her way back home.

She didn't reply. She couldn't bring herself to.

She felt like something inside her had died. What she saw in Clemence's house had changed her. Monsters, and a transmutation circle. Could Clemence have created them by herself? But why? And why had she been bleeding? Trisha understood nothing, and it was killing her.

Don't tell anyone about this. How could she not? She couldn't possibly keep a secret like this to herself. But Clemence was her friend. She had to keep her word.

When she came home, she found her parents and James eating lunch. They had, apparently, returned from East City. They all greeted her cheerfully, but Trisha didn't feel like talking to them. She asked about the music school, and without paying any attention to the answer she received, she went to her room.

Clemence had done something which had horrible results; that much was apparent. It also had something to do with alchemy –but what was it?

Trisha had decided.

She would do anything in her power to find out.

She would do anything to help her friend.