A/N: Yay! Chapter 2! It took me a long time to get it just right.lol. Well enjoy!
The shop owner was glaring down at a teenage boy, about the same age and size as Kerria was. His long, blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail, and his amber eyes were burning with anger. He was shouting at the shop owner and his right hand, which Kerria realized was automail, was clenched into a threatening fist.
"Well it was your fault for shoving that nasty stuff in my face in the first place!" The boy yelled, pointing at a bottle of milk in the shop owner's hand.
"Look, kid. I'm just trying to do my job and sell my stuff." The shop owner said. "If ya weren't such a hotheaded pipsqueak then maybe this wouldn't have happened!"
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HE'S A MICROSCOPIC THING THAT DOESN'T SHOW UP IN YOUR EYES!" The boy screamed, waving his arms around angrily. The two of them continued to yell randomly at each other, and Kerria could do nothing but stare at them in confusion along with the rest of the crowd. Suddenly, someone began to push their way through the large circle of people on the side opposite from Kerria. He had a bag in his arms that was so large it covered his face, making it impossible for Kerria to see who he was.
"Brother!" He called. "Are you causing trouble again? You're supposed to be helping me carry this stuff!"
"Al, I'm a little busy right now!" The blonde boy exclaimed, turning to face him. Kerria's eyes widened upon hearing that name, and her suspicions were proven true when Al set the huge bag down on the ground, revealing his face. It was, without a doubt, the same Alphonse Elric Kerria had met only a few days before. Which meant that the aggressive blonde boy must be his brother, Kerria concluded. Al hastily apologized to the shop owner for his brother's actions and then dragged the lively boy away from the crowd in exasperation. Kerria quickly pushed her way through the group of people in an attempt to catch up with them. Finally, she spotted Al trying to calm his brother down not too far away.
"Really, Brother. You can't cause trouble like this every time we go somewhere." Al sighed. His brother was about to retort when Kerria came rushing up to them with a bright smile on her face.
"A-Alphonse!" She exclaimed, slightly breathless from running.
"Kerria?" Al questioned, a smile starting to appear on his face. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"I had to run more errands." She explained. "But I never thought I would see you here again…what a coincidence!"
"Y-yeah…same here." Al grinned.
"Uh…Al? Care to explain this?" The blonde boy asked, pointing to Kerria. Al quickly explained to Ed how he had met Kerria a few days ago and helped her carry her groceries home.
"I see." The blonde said, turning to Kerria. "Well I'm his brother, Edward Elric." He pointed his thumb towards himself smugly. "I'm also the Fullmetal Alchemist." He purposefully emphasized his state alchemist second name with pride, as he always did.
"Who..?" Kerria blinked. Both Ed and Al's jaws dropped. The two brothers had built up quite a reputation in the past few years; it was strange that there was someone who hadn't heard of them before. Kerria noticed their surprised expressions and explained nervously. "I…don't really know much to tell you the truth. I have no memories of where I came from or who my parents were. About one month ago, my foster family found me on the streets and took me in. I can't remember anything from before that." As she spoke, her expression became more and more miserable. It really bothered her that she had only a month's worth of memories. Ed and Al exchanged glances for a moment, then Al stepped forward and placed his hand on Kerria's shoulder sympathetically. Kerria smiled a little.
The brothers invited her to come over to their house for dinner, so they walked to Kerria's house, she snuck in to set the bag of items she had bought on the table, and then they all walked back to the Elrics' house. Kerria stared at the beautiful house in awe as they walked up the path. It was a bit smaller than the house her foster family had, and it was a shade of light blue with a tan roof and white windows.
"It looks so…comfy." she commented.
"Ha ha…yes, it's very cozy." Al chuckled. Kerria looked up at him and smiled slightly.
"It must be nice…living with your brother and everything."
"Yes…it is." Al smiled, then he gave Ed a teasing, pouty look. "But Brother doesn't eat my cooking sometimes."
"Th-that's…!" Ed started to retort, then his expression softened and he looked at the ground. "It's just…I'm so busy…I have no time to eat a good meal." Kerria couldn't help giggling to herself. Al and Ed got along so well, it was easy to tell that they were very close.
When they got inside, Kerria helped Al cook dinner while Ed set the table. During the meal, the three of them talked happily with each other. Ed told Kerria all about the military and the hard work he had to go through; sorting paperwork, investigating, and most of all dealing with the very sarcastic Roy Mustang. At one point, Al chided Ed on how he complains too much, which made Kerria laugh in amusement. Al then asked if Kerria had ever heard of alchemy.
"Well actually, I…I can do a bit of alchemy myself." she replied, to the brothers' surprise.
"Really now?" Ed questioned. "What can you do?"
"Well…I'm pretty good at fixing things that are broken…and I can do some alchemy with water too. I can make it move where I want it to, or change shape…that sort of thing." Ed and Al exchanged looks. Kerria had suddenly become even more interesting to them. "But…" Kerria started. "I'm not very good at it. My foster family hates alchemy and stuff like that. They think it's better to do things with hard work instead of 'cutting corners'. So I can't practice around them." she stared down at the table sadly. Ed and Al glanced at each other again, then Al turned to look at Kerria and sighed.
By the time Kerria had made it back home, it was already very late. She quietly snuck in through the front door and into the living room, which had served as her bedroom since she first came to live there. She lay down on the sofa and thought about the fun time she had with the Elric brothers, then her eyelids began to feel heavy with fatigue and she slowly drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Ed came out of his room and sleepily sat down to eat the breakfast Al made for him. He drowsily picked at his eggs with his fork, grumbling to himself about all the hard work he had to do and how Mustang had better be happy with him for it.
"Good morning Brother." Al said cheerfully as he walked in, sat down across from Ed at the table and began eating his breakfast.
"Morning…" Ed mumbled.
"You really aren't a morning person, are you?" Al laughed. Ed went to get dressed in his uniform, and then left for Central Headquarters. Al sat down to read a book for a few hours, then looked up when he heard a knock on the door. "Coming!" He called, getting up and walking over to the door. He opened it, and was surprised to see Kerria standing there on the other side. "Kerria? What a surprise. Why are you here?"
"I…I'm sorry to show up on such short notice." Kerria started. Al noticed that her voice was shaky and she was wringing her hands nervously. "But I…I have nowhere else to go." Tears began to stream down her face, and she frantically tried to wipe them away before Al saw.
"Kerria…What happened?" Al asked, placing his hand on her shoulder. Kerria couldn't hold back any longer, and tears came pouring down her cheeks.
"I…I got kicked out of my house!" she cried, burying her face into Al's chest. Al looked at her in surprise for a moment, then brought her inside to try and calm her down.
"Wh-what?" Ed yelled into the office phone. "You can't be serious, Al. I…I don't have time right now to deal with this. Okay…she's asleep?"
"Yes," Al replied. "I brought her in the house and she finally cried herself to sleep on the sofa." On the other line, Ed sighed deeply. "Brother," Al asked slowly. "what are we going to do?"
"I don't know, Al. We'll talk about it when I get home okay? Okay…bye." Ed hung up the phone and sighed.
"Ahh? Answering personal phone calls on the job, Fullmetal?" Roy said teasingly from the doorway.
"Ugh." Ed glared. "Not now." Even though Roy was now the Fuhrer, he still got a kick out of picking on Ed and laughing at his reactions. But this time, it seemed Ed really didn't want to be bothered.
"So what's the problem then?" Roy asked. Ed was about to tell him that it was none of his business, but decided against it, as he didn't feel like arguing at the moment.
"Well," he sighed. "There's this girl…"
"Ah!" Roy gasped in mock surprise. "I had no idea it was something like that! To think that the Fullmetal pipsqueak is having girlfriend troubles…"
"Not that kind of girl! And don't call me pipsqueak!" Ed yelled, blushing at the thought of what Roy had just said. Roy laughed in amusement.
Back at the Elrics' house, it was late in the afternoon and Kerria was just starting to wake up. She sat up on the sofa and rubbed her eyes, sniffling a bit. She felt a little better, thanks to Al comforting her, but she still had no idea where she could live from now on.
"Maybe…I could apologize." She said to herself. "Then maybe they'll let me back."
"I have a better idea." Al said from the doorway; Kerria spun around to look at him. He smiled and sat down next to her on the sofa. "Why don't you…stay here with us?" Kerria's eyes widened. "I'd have to talk to Brother about it first," Al continued. "But there's a spare room upstairs you can stay in if you want to. It used to be a bedroom when the people before us lived here, but we've just been using it for storage.
"But, I…I couldn't…I've already imposed on you two so much." Kerria protested.
"I know it might need some getting used to…living with two guys you just met and all." Al said nervously. "But it's really no trouble…I'm sure Brother will agree. And you said it yourself, you have nowhere else to go." Kerria stared at the ground and was silent for about a minute or two before finally speaking again.
"I…I'll help out with whatever I can." she started. "and I can get a job to pay for the extra water costs and such."
"Don't worry about that." Al assured her. "Since Brother's in the military, they take care of all that for us. We'll talk to him about it when he gets home." Kerria looked up at him and nodded, smiling. Al then questioned her about why she was forced to leave her house. Kerria explained that her foster parents had been threatening to get rid of her for a while, and then when she came home so late the night before, they told her she was worthless and to leave and never come back. Al frowned; he knew that people could be cruel, but somehow this just seemed over the top. It seemed that all Kerria ever was to these people was someone they could push around and force to do their bidding.
"So I thought about where I could go…and…well you and Edward are the closest things to friends I have." Kerria said solemnly. This made Al smile a little; he was glad that Kerria considered them her friends.
At first, Ed was reluctant towards Al's idea of letting Kerria live with them. But it was at this point that Kerria discovered Ed's weakness. As soon as Al looked his brother in the eye, gave him his best puppy dog face and said sweetly, "Please Brother?", Ed couldn't help but give in. Again, Kerria couldn't resist laughing at how well the two brothers got along with each other. Everyone got a good night's sleep, and the next day after Ed left for Central Headquarters, Al and Kerria worked hard to straighten up the extra room. By the time Ed returned home, the storage room had been successfully transformed into Kerria's room. Ed was actually surprised, not only at the hard work they had done, but the fact that the room didn't look quite as…girly as he'd expected. He thought for sure the whole place would be filled with pink, sweet, fluffy, things that most girls would enjoy. Kerria's room was mostly white except for her bedspread and the floor. The bedspread was light blue, and the floor was the same beige carpet that had been there before. There was a window in the back of the room that overlooked the garden, and a desk on the left side of the room. On the right side was a closet, which was empty for now, as Kerria had always borrowed clothes from her foster family's daughter and didn't have any clothes of her own. The wholearea seemed to have a sense of peace about it.
"Pretty nice." Ed commented, looking around the room. "And you guys did all this in one day?"
"Ha ha…you wouldn't believe all the good stuff we found up here Brother." Al started. "The people who lived here before us left behind a lot. We didn't even have to go out and get much." They all laughed. Kerria was glad that things were finally starting to look up.
A/N: Please review! I'm afraid the story line is moving a bit too fast...and I need an honest opinion. Truthfully, I think I made it that way because I'm trying to get to the good stuff in the story. I'm afraid that this is too boring or something. This is my first fanfic though so I'd appreciate it if you'd please be as gentle as possible. ha ha...
