A/N: First of all, thanks aquatic blue for commenting on the first chappie, and yup, I've made this next one a bit longer so… go on and read! Oh, and no flames, 'kay?
Chapter 2: Some Secrets Are Better Kept Unrevealed
"It's this far away?" Amy complained, getting out of the rented car.
"Ya, it is pretty far away. I guess that's why not much people are here yet." Ed said, looking around at the huge space.
When they reached the place, it was already several hours past lunch time.
"I wonder how it would go tomorrow…" Alphonse wondered, with a slight tone of worry in his voice.
"Oh, don't worry Alphonse, from how the released book of Mr. Obert sold, I bet there would be a huge crowd here tomorrow." Ed smiled.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. It'll surely go well, for sure." Amy said, smiling.
"You won't be able to go though, Amy." Ed said, looking at her.
"Huh? Why not?" She asked. "I really want to see the demonstration!"
"School." Both boys answered.
Cursing under her breath, she answered.
"Damn, can't I be absent for just one day, please Ed!" She pleaded.
"You have got to be kidding me! You have a quiz tomorrow, remember?" Ed said, laughing.
"Oh my god…"
"What?" Alphonse asked.
"I—"
"She forgot to study—again…" Ed smiled.
"I did not! I just…need to review more." She lied.
"Yeah, right." Ed laughed.
"Great… This'll just cause another fight…" Alphonse mumbled, turning away from them.
"Yes, right!" She countered. "But seriously, do I have a quiz tomorrow?"
"So it said on your diar—" Ed started. "Oops…"
"You read my diary?!" Amy screamed, causing Alphonse to look at them bicker again.
"Ed? You read her diary?" Alphonse asked, laughing.
"Hey, I didn't mean to! I just found it lying around on her bedside table! It was lying there opened so… I took a little peek—"
His sentence was interrupted when Amy punched him HARD on his left cheek.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, WOMAN?!" Ed screamed.
"I knew this wouldn't last long…" Alphonse mumbled.
"For reading my diary, idiot!" She countered.
As they continued to bicker, lots of heads turned and looked at them.
"This is just…great…" Alphonse sighed.
--------------------------------------------------------
"Ha…" Al sighed, as he was laying and relaxing in the green grass just outside of the Rockbell house.
"Al, when did you say you were going to Lior?" His aunt Pinako asked, carrying a huge cardboard box. She just came back from town.
"Oh, um, probably, the some days later." He said, sitting up.
"Oh, I was just wondering, you've never given up on finding Ed yet, have you?" Pinako asked in a voice, almost like a whisper.
"You know the answer to that already, Granny."
"And, that's pretty much why you've decided to start searching in Lior, am I right?"
Al just nodded in response.
"Well then, this would be just perfect!" Pinako said, putting down the box right beside Al.
"Huh? What's perfect?" Al asked, raising one eyebrow as he peeped inside the dark box.
"Well, before you and Ed burned down your house, do you think I would just let some important stuff burn along with it?" His aunt said, smiling slyly.
"So, those are Brother's stuff?" Al asked, surprised.
"Where do you think I got those pictures inside from?" She asked, pointing to the house.
"So, what's that got to do with me?"
"Here you go." She said, pulling something red from the inside of the box.
"That's—"
"Yup, that's Ed's red cape, plus the exact same copy of the shirt and pants he used to wear inside the cape."
"Granny… I can't wear those!" Al said, defensively.
"Oh, but why not? You're the same size as Ed so this would be a perfect fit on you."
Al gave the idea a bit of thought and finally decided.
"Sure, I guess it wouldn't hurt to wear them." He smiled, holding up the cape in front of him as he recalled vivid moments of him together with his Brother.
-------------------------------------------------------
"Aren't you two ever going to settle this like mature people?" Alphonse asked, looking at both Amy, who was walking at his right, and Ed, who was walking behind them.
"Come on, Alphonse, some mature people fight as well, you know." Amy reasoned.
"Not the physical type though." He smiled. "So, where'd you learn to punch like that Amy? That was pretty strong." He added, bending down to whisper to her left ear.
"Ha! Natural talent!" Amy laughed.
"Alphonse's trying to reprimand you and you say 'natural talent'?" Ed said, obviously not hearing what Alphonse whispered to Amy. "You really are something." He mumbled.
Alphonse and Amy just chuckled at what he said.
So far, they've been circling around the space being covered by the carnival and realized it was really wide. They decided to take a break from walking every once in a while.
"Listen, I'm leaving you two together here, while I check out the space where we're going to launch the rocket." Alphonse said, once they stopped. "Stay here, and do me a favour, don't bicker again." He said, with a pleading look on his face.
"Ugh, what an impossible favour." Amy mumbled, but decided against it.
"Listen Ed, I'm going to try a method Gracia suggested, so just go along with it." Amy said, looking at Ed who was just sitting under a nearby tree.
"What method?" Ed sighed, finally giving in.
"Talking."
"Oh, that's easy. When we fight, that's when we talk." He smiled.
"Ed…" She said, with a serious look on her face.
"Fine, I'll go with it." He said, flashing her a smile.
"Thank you." She said, exhaling deeply.
-----------------------------------------------
'I knew this would work.' Alphonse thought to himself, hiding behind a tree from where he could see Ed and Amy talking from.
"Finally… Now I can see the site." He smiled to himself, as he left his spot and went directly to the centre of the whole space.
------------------------------------------------
"Well, do you really want to know why I bicker with you most of the time?" Ed asked.
"All of the time." Amy corrected.
"Fine, have it your way. All the time."
"Yes, I really want to know." Amy said, kneeling beside him, under the same shade of the same tree.
"Well, remember the time we met?" Ed asked, looking at her.
"Yeah, very clearly actually."
Ed just laughed suddenly.
"I remember we also met and fought for the same time as well." Amy said, joining in the laugh as well.
"Ya, what a great first meeting…" He said, as they both recalled their first encounter.
"You thief!" A 15- year old Edward Elric said, pointing to a girl about his age, or even younger.
They were bickering right beside a little stall in Xenotime, in some kind of market place. Lots of heads turned to look at them start a shouting contest of some sort.
"It's your fault, shrimp! I bought this fruit with my own money! You were the one who stole it from this stand, thinking it was yours!" The girl, apparently named Amy Tobin, accused as well, holding up the piece of fruit.
"This is just great, the only time I decide to buy food, that's the time I bump into a brat like you!" Ed said, going hyper. "And what's with that 'shrimp' comment?!"
"Oh, it's something called the truth, which by the way, you know nothing of!"
"Stop it, Ed! Calm down, I'm sure it's just some kind of… mistake?" A huge armoured man said, holding back Ed.
"Yes, please stop, sir." The young salesman who owned the stall pleaded, looking at Ed. "This is really going to pull down my business…" He mumbled.
"No wait. You! This is your fault! I gave you the money, now where's the food?" Ed said, apparently coming to his senses.
"Uh…" The salesman said, moving backward.
"Oh, just give him the damn fruit already, to get it over and done with! Or I'll be the next one to snap at you." Amy said, threatening the man.
"Uh, y-yes ma'am…" He said, finally handing over the fruit to Ed.
"Ugh, finally…" Amy said, leaving the site.
"Sheesh, Brother…" The armoured man said, looking at Ed. "You always pick the wrong people to accuse… Speaking of wrong people…" He continued, spotting Amy in the far part and running towards her, together with Ed.
"Um… Listen, about what happened earlier—" Ed started, once they caught up to her.
"Save it, just don't do it again." She interrupted, holding up her right hand.
"Wait, what's your name?" He asked, holding her wrist.
"If you'd let go of my hand, I'd tell you." She said, giving him a let-go-of-my-hand-or-I'll-kick-your-ass look.
"Oh," He said, laughing embarrassingly. "Sorry about that."
"That was rude," She said, shaking her head disapprovingly. "Anyways, it's Amy. Amy Tobin"
"Amy…" The armoured man repeated. "That's a nice name, mine's Alphonse Elric." He introduced.
"Ha-ha." She chuckled. "Looks really are deceiving, I thought of you as someone who doesn't care about anything in the world, speaking of looks, what are you two? Some kind of circus freaks?" She asked, looking at both of their outfits.
"Ugh, in every town we go to, we're always called that." Alphonse said.
"Drop it Al," He smiled. "My name's Edward Elric, State Alchemist, I'm the older brother." He said, reaching out to her hand.
"State Alchemist?" Amy asked, with an angry look on her face.
"What's wrong Amy?" Alphonse asked.
"Are you one as well?" She asked, turning to Alphonse.
"Um, no…"
"Oh," She said, turning around to walk the other way.
"Hey, wait! Why? Did I say something wrong?" Ed asked, catching up to her.
"I don't trust those with the military." She said, in an almost whisper.
"Hey, it's okay. I'm different." Ed said, feeling he was going to lose a friend if he didn't say anything.
"Prove it; you don't even know what the military did with my family."
"You can tell us you know." Alphonse said.
"Uh…" She said, looking at both of them with uncertain eyes.
"Come on, it's okay. Even if I'm in the military, I joined for a different reason, and I don't really trust them 100 as well." He smiled.
"Fine, I'll tell you two." She finally said. "They separated me from my parents. My adoptive parents live here in Xenotime. I'm very grateful for them but…"
"It isn't the same, right?" Alphonse asked, almost reading her thoughts.
"R-Right. Well, that's pretty much it." She said. "Wow, that's the first time I've said that in years. Glad that got out." She smiled.
"Ha-ha, want to be friends?" Alphonse asked.
"Are you serious?" She asked, laughing a bit.
"Why not?" Ed laughed.
"It's just that not many people here ask me to be their friend, it just seems so… new." She said, blushing a bit.
"You mean, you don't have any friends here?" Alphonse asked her.
"No, I mean, I have 2 great friends, there!" She said, pointing to a mansion overlooking the whole town of Xenotime. "It's just that… I'm pretty much treated as an apprentice, you see, I'm learning basic alchemy through them." She finished, feeling as though she can tell those two anything.
"Oh, so you're an alchemist as well?" Alphonse asked.
"Um…ya. I know it's kind of ironic for me to be an alchemist, when my parents where taken away from me by State Alchemists." She said, laughing a bit.
"Ha-ha, it is pretty ironic. So, where do you stay—"
"Um, sorry to interrupt you Ed, but, it's almost sundown and I really need to go." Amy said, looking at the sun setting.
"Um, okay, so we'll see you sometime, again?" Alphonse asked.
"I'll really look forward to it!" She said, waving her right hand and running towards the mansion.
"You think she lives there?" Alphonse asked his brother.
"If she does, she must be really something." Ed smiled, heading for the opposite direction.
"That was really something, you trusted me that quick plus who knew I would be meeting you guys that same night as well?" Amy laughed.
"Not us, for sure," Ed said, laughing together with her.
"So, what's that got to do with why you always bug me?" She suddenly asked.
"Well, after all the commotion and all, you went together with us, saying you were gonna help us find the stone. Remember?"
"Of course I do, still, what's that got to do with it?" She asked, looking at him.
"We really became close friends because of that," He smiled. "That was a relief."
"Relief?" Amy laughed. "You always fought with me even back then!"
"Well, that's it, since you became close with me and Al, I always treated you as a sister, of some sort."
"So, that's why you always bicker with me!" She laughed.
"Nope, not done yet." He said. "Then there was this…incident which caused me to… Oh, never mind, it's kind of hard to explain on my part."
"It's that hard?" Amy asked, in a small voice, a bit doubtful of his answer.
"Listen," He said, avoiding her gaze. "Don't bother with it; it's just not something you can just say to everyone."
"Oh, it's…alright," She finally said, getting up. Accidentally though, her hand kind of touched Ed's left hand as well.
"Well, that's over and done with. But can we just stop this," Amy pleaded. "I'm also getting kind of tired of fighting with you every single day!"
"Um… Sure…" He answered, blushing a bit.
'Why am I acting like this, her hand just barely touched mine!' He thought, looking at Amy '... But it felt so warm and… Oh, snap out of it!' He instructed himself, shaking that strange feeling out of him. 'It was just an…accident, yup, an accident. Ugh… This is what I've been wanting to tell her ever since before…' He thought, standing up as well.
