Flannery's POV

"I swear Aquanette we have the weirdest days" I said quietly as we were walking home behind Griffon.

"I know first the Chimera and now this!" Aqua said quietly.

"You know I can hear you right?" Griffon said turning her head slightly.

"Sorry Griffon" I said as I walked next to her.

"Yea we don't mean anything by it" Aqua said walking on the side of Griffon.

"Yea I guess so" Griffon said with a shrug.

"So it looks like you're our cousin" I said.

"Yea it seems that way" Griffon said.

"It's going to be great! You're going to love being our cousin. We can sit around pop balloons, drink root beer and eat steak lots and lots of it!" Aqua said wrapping her arm around Griffon's shoulders.

"Um...okay?" Griffon said confused

"Don't worry you'll get use to it" I said with a shrug.

"Yea it'll be-" Aqua was cut off by her watch beeping. "Oh hold on." Aqua said
looking at her wrist watch. "Speaking of steak we're gonna be late for
dinner!" Aqua said.

"Aqua relax we're like four blocks from the house" I said.

"We'll probably be there in about 15 minutes" Griffon said with a shrug.

"I can't wait that long! C'mon!" Aqua said grabbing our wrist and running full
speed toward the house. She was running so fast that our feet were hardly
touching the ground! Why did she have to be so hungry all the time?!

We busted through the door and Aqua let go of our hands.

"I'm here! I'm here! Please tell me you didn't start dinner without me!" Aqua
said jumping into her seat.

"Of course not Aquanette." Mommy said placing a plate in front of Aqua.

"Thank you! Steak!" Aqua said lifting her fork and knife into the air. It was one of her many favourite meals.

"So girls what took you so long?" Daddy asked.

"Yea when Aqua didn't come home for dinner on time we started to get worried."
Mommy said placing plates in front of us once we sat down.

"Well," Griffon began. "I went to the PRO to look for a birth record." She paused to take a drink. "But the documents were sent to central, so the man at the desk said he would have some copies transferred back here."

"That's good." Mommy said.

Aqua nodded. "Then she made us go to the library to look for her family tree, but someone tore the pages out."

"And that's bad." Daddy stated.

"Then she went to visit her sister in the hospital." I continued, making sure not to mention the chimera. "We met this really cool volunteer named Thatch. He makes sure Megan, that's Griffon's sister's name, gets her medicine."

Griffon glared at me & my sister. "Do you listen to all of my conversations?"

"Your sister's in the hospital?" Mommy asked.

Griffon took a small bite. "Yes, no one knows what she has, so they just give her a weird cocktail of drugs. At least it seems to make it more endurable."

"You certainly did have an eventful time." Daddy commented.

"That's not even the half of it." Griffon told him. "Did we mention that you're my uncle?" She let out a shriek. Why? Daddy did a spit take & got it all over her.

"Ew." I said, getting up to get a towel for her. "I'll get you a towel."

"Thanks." She picked up her napkin to start drying off.

"That was rude, daddy." I heard Aqua say.

I brought back the towel & Griffon immediately began wiping her face off. "Excuse me?" she asked, standing up.

Mommy nodded. "I think you should get some cleaner clothes on."

Griffon picked up her plate & walked towards the kitchen. "I'm going to take my plate to the kitchen; I'm not very hungry."

Roy's POV

A niece!?! I can't have a niece! "Is that true?" I asked Riza.

"We'll have to wait for those documents to check her grandparent's names with your parents' names." Riza answered. "Being orphaned doesn't change the names of your birth parents."

"Why aren't you happy?" Aqua asked me. "Griff is a cool girl. You should see some of the stuff she can do."

"It's not that." I told her. "Of course she seems nice, but a niece. I don't see how that could be."

"Colonel?" Griffon asked. She had already changed into some clean clothes.

"Yes?" I asked in reply.

She walked up to me & held out a letter. "My mom wrote this before she died. She told me to give it to her brother."

"That can't be. It looks like it was only written yesterday." I stated. The letter was white & crisp.

Griffon nodded. "I didn't dare touch it."

I opened the letter & read it over:

Dear Roy,

I know it's been a long time since we've seen each other. I bet you've completely forgotten about me by now. But, I'm getting very sick & the rest of my family is not happy with my leaving East City. They won't help me with my little girls & boy. I need help, Roy, please take them in. Please, Roy, they can't stay out in the streets or in CPS. Do your big sister just this one thing & it will ease my spirit when I die.

Love, Elyon

Riza read the note over my shoulder. "Girls, give us some time to talk?" She asked the twins & Griffon.

The three filed out, but could have sworn I heard Griffon say something along the lines of, 'His not gonna let me stay.'

"Well, she's your niece. You need to be the one who makes the decision." Riza told me.

I groaned. "Let's see how things go. I want her to stay, but I also want her in the best place she can."

"What place could be better than with family?" Riza wondered. "If you ask me, I wouldn't give it a second thought; she would stay as long as she needed."

"Yeah, I bet she wouldn't have given me the note if she weren't sure she wanted to stay." I inquired. "And she gets along with the twins"

"So, it's settled?" asked Riza. "She's staying with us." I nodded.

"Now, let's see. We need a way for her to get a scholarship to Central Academy." I commented.

Riza laughed at what I said. "Let's start with making her comfortable first."

"Right." I agreed, rubbing the back of my head.

Flannery's POV

We were sitting in my room playing cards when Mommy and Daddy walked in.

"So?" Aqua asked.

"Griffon can stay" Daddy said with a smile.

"Yay!" Aqua and I exclaimed before we hugged our cousin.

"Oh thank you Co- I guess I can call you Uncle Roy now huh" Griffon said.

"Yea I guess so" Daddy said.

"Thank you Uncle Roy" Griffon said smiling.

"No problem" Daddy said.

The next morning we didn't have to go to school but Mommy and Daddy had to go
with work so they let us come with us. So we decided to give Griffon the low
down on everything we do.

"Okay Griff pay attention because we're only going to go over this once" Aqua
said.

"...Okay then" Griffon said confused.

"First of Daddy says we go to school in the Mustang house hold so you're going
to have to find a way into CA" I said.

"CA?" Griffon asked.

"Yea it's Central Academy it's the best private school in all of Amestris."
Aqua explained.

"Oh okay then" Griffon said with a shrug. "So what are we going to do first"

"We're going to show the greatness that is Central Headquarters. Let's go meet
the boys" I said walking into the office. Mommy and Daddy were in a meeting so
it was Havoc and the others

"Uh hey girls" Havoc said. "Who's the chick"

"Havoc this is our cousin Griffon. Griffon this is Havoc, Breda, Fuery, and
Falman they work for Daddy." I said.

"They also laze around when my Mother's not here. They're scared of her" Aqua
said whispered. "You can trust Falman and Fuery they're the good guys. But
watch out for Breda and Havoc they're evil especially Havoc" Aqua said
pointing to Havoc.

"You wanna go?" Havoc said standing up.

"Calm down Havoc you know we'll get in trouble for arguing with the twins."
Breda said pulling Havoc back down.

"You're lucky you got connections girl" Havoc said sitting back down.

"Yea, yea, yea." Aqua said. "C'mon Griffon we got more to see"

We continued down the hallway until Griffon stopped at the Furher's office.

"Hey what's behind this door?" Griffon said.

"Whoa Griffon don't even think about touching that door" Aqua said.

"Why what is it?" Griffon asked.

"That's Furher King Bradley's office" I said.

"Dude's got like mad power he runs the whole country!" Aqua said.

Then the door opened and Furher King Bradley and he secretary walked out. Aqua
and I quickly bowed Griffon stood still but I pulled her by the hair making
her bow.

"Ow!" Griffon said

"At ease citizens" The Furher said. We stood up. "Ah Flannery and Aquanette
Mustang how are you?"

"Fine sir" We both said.

"It seems you have a new friend" The Furher said.

"Furher Bradley this is our cousin Griffon" I said.

"Nice to meet you sir" Griffon said.

"Nice to meet also Griffon if you'll excuse me I have to join my wife for
lunch." The Furher said walking away.

Once the Furher was gone Aqua and I let out a breath.

"Was that really necessary?" Griffon said.

"Of course!" Aqua said.

"It's the way here Griffon. Soldiers have to salute and civilians have to bow
that's how we do it. If we don't we could get in trouble for insubordination"
I explained.

"Well that seems a little wrong" Griffon said.

"Hey I don't like it either but that's how we do things so get use to it. Now
c'mon we've got more to see" Aqua said.

Griffon's POV

"Okay, my brain is crammed with stuff about HQ now. Can we just take a walk or something?" I asked. It gets pretty boring just listening to Havoc & Aqua yell at each other for an hour straight.

Flannery shrugged. "I guess we can. I'll get Aqua, you just meet us outside." I got up & headed out.

Outside, someone's car was smoking, literally pouring out of the hood. The car's owner was leaning over it, coughing & waving the smoke away. I walked over, already patting the tools in my pocket. "Excuse me, sir? Do you need some help?"

"Yes, I can't seem to figure out what the problem is." He replied, but I still couldn't get a good look at him.

I walked over to the driver's side & pulled the keys out. "Let me take a look, I'm pretty good with stuff like this."

The smoke cleared as I stepped up to the engine, it wasn't really that hard to figure out. So, I began explaining it to the man as I worked to fix it. I also told him how to keep it from happening again. "Finally, I really suggest getting your oil changed sometime this week." I slammed the hood down & wiped my hands. "It should work now, give it a go."

I turned to give the keys back to the man. "Thank you, Griffon. I appreciate your helping a stranger."

"Furher Bradley? I am so sorry. With all the smoke, I couldn't tell it was you." I exclaimed, not really knowing how to react.

"It's not a problem, now run along & hang out with your cousins." He instructed. I nodded & began leaving. "Oh, come back here for a moment."

I turned back to him & he handed me ten dollars. "Thank you, Furher Bradley, goodbye." I ran over to the twins, who were waiting at a curb, & let out a breath.

Aqua looked at the car. "Isn't that the Furher's car? And isn't that the Furher?" I nodded, Aqua shook my shoulders. "What did you do?"

"I fixed his car." I told her simply, holding up the ten bucks. "I didn't even ask for anything after I fixed it. I also didn't know it was the Furher."

We headed down the street or a few minutes in silence. Finally, Flannery began talking. "So, Griffon, tell us a little about your brother?"

I stopped short for a second, but quickly started up again to keep them from noticing. "What can I say? He's my brother, his name's Freddie, he's eighteen as of last year, & he's got brown hair & blue eyes. I don't know, when mom died, he took up a job as a lab assistant to support us since all the money in my parents' bank accounts were used to pay for Meg's hospital bills. He really is the sweetest – always putting the safety of others before his own." I think I pretty much could have written a biography with all the info I told the twins.

"He sounds like a nice guy." Flannery agreed.

By this time we had reached a small patch of green. I guess it was supposed to be a park, but barely anyone was there, save for a group of boys. All I could make out from the distance were red hair on one of them, one with black &, I think, a little blue, & the third had blonde & green. I couldn't really make anything else out.

"Hey, the guys are here." Flannery said, turning to her sister. The two waved for me to follow them & ran towards the boys.

The boys all sped up too, only slowing down when they got close. I took my time getting there; I didn't know who they were. When I could finally see those guys well enough, & noticed the blonde was Thatch, so I went to stand by him. Flannery & Aqua talked to the other two boys.

"Well, don't I feel like a fifth wheel." I said, getting a little annoyed. I laughed after saying that. Apparently that's what Thatch thought, too. Why else would he say it at the same time as me?

"Hey, we can always be fifth wheels," He began, linking my arm with his, "together."

I could've sworn I blushed redder than Flannery's hair, & that's red.

"Sorry." Flannery told us. "Griff, this is Alex & that's Marth. Guys, this is our cousin, Griffon."

"Hey." Alex greeted. "Are you staying here long?"

I nodded. "I live here now. Well, for now. I still have to get some papers to make it official."

Aqua slapped me in the head. "No, you don't. A stupid paper doesn't have anything to do with it. You're already part of the family & that paper ain't gonna change it."

I slapped her in the back of the head too, only harder. "I just want to be sure."

"You wanna fill us in?" Marth asked.

"We're not completely sure I'm Roy's niece, & I'm getting some records to see if it's true or not before I settle down." I explained, then turning to Thatch. "Is Meg doing okay?"

"Meggie is doing fine. Her condition actually improved after you came to visit." He assured.

Alex asked him, "Are you talking about that little girl you take care of?"

Thatch nodded. "That's Griffon's sister."

"Hey, can we please do something? I'm getting really bored just standing here." I asked, trying to get the subject off of my family.

"Sure." Marth agreed. We all started walking. Where to? I got no clue, but it was better than just standing.

Riza's POV

Griffon was really set on having proof of Roy being her uncle before making herself at home here. But when we got this all straightened out, we were going to have Griffon's room fixed up to make her feel comfortable. Then we would work on her scholarship, that she seemed bent on getting.

Okay, today is the day. Griffon just got the call from the Public Records Office saying that the birth records had gotten there this morning. She insisted on leaving to pick them up by herself, so we all sat around the living room waiting for her.

The door opened & she walked in with an envelope in one hand & a small bag on her shoulder. "I'm back, & I got the papers."

She tossed the manila envelope at Roy as her way of telling him to open it for her. He just stared at it for a few minutes. Griffon sighed & pulled it out of his hands.

"Time to face facts." She started looking through them, then laid the first document on the coffee table. "That's my mom's &…this one is Uncle Roy's." She set another next to the first before Flannery picked them up for a comparison.

"Well?" Roy asked.

Griffon patted him on the back. "Relax, Uncle Roy, it's not like we're waiting for the results of a pregnancy test or something." He stiffened & Griffon smirked.

"Griffon, please leave him alone." I told her. "I think he can be stressed out enough without your putting things in his head."

"Sorry Auntie R." She said.

"It's a match!" Aqua yelled from where she sat behind her sister. "She's really daddy's niece!"