I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I own my OC, Avis. My two friends also have OCs in the story, you will meet them later, and they own them. Don't use our OCs without our you notice any spelling, grammar, plot issues (especially plot issues), OOC, or anything else please let me know. Reviews are always nice.

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We didn't pack much food. We didn't pack much of anything. Leigh and I settle into a building away from the Devil's Nest and go through what we packed in our haste. A knife, the sheet, the Alchemy book, a box of matches, a single jacket, a candle, and a box of crackers. The crackers were stale to boot.

"First things first, we need water and food." I say.

"Where are we going to find that?"

"Find it?" I ask.

We stare at each other, we're completely useless, still, we head outside and search for any food and water we could find. Of course neither of us had any money, which would be the easy thing to do. As we walk I think and plan, "We should leave Dublith… I'm sure he'd want us to get as far away as we could."

"You talk like he's dead."

"He is." My throat closes up but there's no point in denying it. He died and he's left us on our own. When I close my eyes I can still feel his fingers in my hair, his nails scratching on my scalp, that's behind us though. Leigh nods and puffs up her chest, she made it through the death of her parents well, just long nights of crying, she can make it through the death of a man she rarely knew.

Our shoes thump against the ground as we walk. My eyes don't really look for food or water, instead I search for a map. Leigh takes my arm and pulls me to a bulletin board there's a map of Amestris on it. My finger stabs Dublith and we both search for a nearby town.

"Rush Valley." We say together. While it's not far from Dublith it's a start. "Maybe we can get a job there." Leigh says.

"Who would hire two 15 year old girls?" I think realistically.

"You never know. If a man like Gr-… him can take us in then we can find work." I nod and we start walking. "We're going to be on the road for a while aren't we?" I nod again. "At least we still have each other."

"Yea, better than nothing, right?"

Leigh nods and we focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Faces and buildings pass and eventually we're on our own on a dirt road. Leigh takes off her boots, Dolcetto gave her them, and stomps around barefoot.

"You'll cut your feet…"

"No I won't." And I don't question her. A breeze picks up and carries my hair around me. It blows into my mouth and I pout and spit the hair back out. Maybe Greed was right, my hair is too long, but I like the way it feels under my fingers.

We walk in silence for the longest time. Leigh and I don't need to talk to understand each other, we just know. Eventually, my legs feel like jelly and I don't want to walk anymore. The two of us settle on the side of the road and kick our feet out in front of us. Leigh draws another transmutation circle and transmutes a little pillar out of earth. She then kicks it and it topples over. After a moment we stand and start walking again. The sun shines down on us, I lick my lips often to keep them moist, I wish we had water.

"I'm thirsty." Leigh whines.

"Me too." I breath deeply and suddenly veer left, off the path.

"Where are you going?" Leigh asks following after me.

As we walk past a few trees the sound of water grows louder. I push back a small branch and smile at the stream before dropping my hands into the stream. We drink greedily from the small stream.

"I wish we had something to carry this in." Leigh murmurs as she drinks from the stream. I let the water tickle the tips of my fingers, suddenly it feels like water is tickling my whole body, like there's water all around. My eyes squeeze shut as images flood my mind. "Avis?" Leigh's voice calls through my haze, her hands touch my arm and I feel water pulse like blood.

My eyes spring open, images of circles flash behind my eyes and I dig my nail into the ground beside us. A perfect circle, inverted triangle, two half moon shaped wrapped around each other. I slam my hands down onto the circle like I'd seen Leigh do and water molecules around me condense into droplets and rain down onto my clothes.

"Woah!" Leigh jumps back as I just sit there. "You can do alchemy."

He patted my head and told me all about water molecules. "Water's everywhere," he said, "you just need to feel it." He showed my special circles that would help me use the water molecules to help me. "Only in emergencies Avis."

"My father taught me." I murmur.

"That's so cool! You can get water for us whenever we want!"

"No… only in emergencies." I state before I shake my hair, water flying off the tips. Leigh and I start our path again, my hand drawing that circle over and over again. I remember a piece of paper filled with circles. Now all I could think about were the water molecules swimming around me. I could control them into anything I wanted to. Daddy showed me how. He sat me on his knee and showed me pretty circles, I remember Greed wasn't the only one who would run his fingers through my hair, Daddy did a lot to. Something tugs inside me what happened to Daddy? And my mother? Did I even have a mother? I try and think of her but I get nothing besides the memory of learning alchemy.

Leigh and I walk in silence, our feet crunching against the ground. The breeze from earlier picks up, at times the wind whips my hair around so fast it stings my face. Something inside me worries but we keep walking, even when the sun starts to set. There's nothing nearby, no houses, little shelter, the sound of the stream has long passed. Without anything to do, we keep walking. My legs scream at me just before the sun sets, my lungs hurt and I want to stop.

"Why don't we walk until we find something I can make a shelter out of?" Leigh offers, probably feeling as sore as me.

"Sure."

My feet hurt with each step, breathing becomes harder, and the wind and cold burns my throat. Just when I'm ready to collapse Leigh walks off the trail to a bolder, I follow as she picks up a rock and scratches her transmutation circle onto the surface. Blue lightning crackles and the rock cracks in two forming a teepee.

"It's better than nothing." She murmurs as she slides into the area. It's just wide enough for the two of us to lie on our backs side by side. I drop the blanket around us and we use the backpack as a pillow. Leigh's warm against me as the wind howls outside. I want Greed. I want my father. I want to remember my mother. To hide my tears I turn away from Leigh and frown into the darkness.

A bird chirps loudly, again and again, I sit up too fast and smack my head against the side of the shelter. With a groan I roll over and find Leigh's already left, I pack the blanket and clamber my way out. Leigh stands whistling back to the bird I heard. The same notes the bird repeated. The bird would chirp, Leigh would copy, the bird would chirp again, Leigh would copy. It goes on for a while until I step forward and snap a branch, the bird flutters off.

"Let's go." I say, Leigh nods and destroys the rock. We don't want to leave much evidence behind of our move. I feel weird to leave everything behind but Leigh's done it, and I've done it, not that I remember.

By late afternoon we arrive at Rush Valley, canyons and mountains started to jut up as we walked today. It had been a promising sign. Now in the new town my nerves crack, people mill about in every direction, shiny object glint the sun into my eyes. What do we do now?

"Let's go search for a 'Help Wanted' sign." Leigh says surely, "My dad told me that when places need help they put out a sign." I trail after the brunette through the crowds of people. Men and women of all sizes walk by. Big burly men, skinny men, short men, chesty women, bulky women, twiggy women. A kid races by us, laughing and giggling, flailing his arms. His left arm was metal and shiny. The more I look, the more I see people with metal limbs. Most of the stores I see say "Automail" in bold letters. Outside various shops are metal limbs, dangling from the roof and sides. Is automail metal limbs?

Leigh suddenly grabs my hand and pulls me through a thick crowd of people. We go down a back alley, shops look smaller and dingier down here, but there are more signs wanting help. She picks a shop at random and turns into it. Inside is a young man bent over a metal arm.

"Excuse me." Leigh murmurs. He looks up suddenly, he's got short black hair and dark eyes, he looks us over with curiosity. "We, uhm, saw the sign for help wanted."

"Do you know how to repair automail?"

"No." Leigh says as I shake my head.

"Would you be willing to learn?" Leigh and I look at each other, work is work, we turn to the man and nod our heads. He smiles, "I'm Josh."

"I'm Leigh."

"Avis." I nod my head softly.

"Nice to meet you ladies now…" Josh turns and hands us a large book and a crummy looking limb. "Learn." We stare at him for a moment before I take the book and head off to a clean table. Leigh and I settle down and set to work.

.-.

For a week we work under Josh, earning a little money and learning quite a lot about automail. Josh doesn't get many costumers but he doesn't seem to mind as he tinkers with the limbs he's made. It's fun to watch him, how his eyebrows furrow, his muscular arms flex. Leigh and I often just sit and watch him work.

It was a lazy Wednesday and Leigh and I sat fiddling with an arm when a young man rushes in wearing a blue military uniform, my body cringes at the sight. Bradley. The man speaks quickly about someone losing their leg, Josh stands and runs off ordering us to watch his shop. Leigh and I look at each other. Someone lost their leg? And they came to Josh to get automail? Not that Josh's work wasn't good, but there were much better mechanics in the area considering Rush Valley was the Mecca for automail.

Maybe two minutes later Josh races into the shop carrying a woman in his arms in a blue uniform. Her leg was missing from the knee down and seemed to be bound by red bandages. Josh yells orders that Leigh and I race around each other to get. "Bandages! . . . Clips! . . . Water! Now!" I scrawl a transmutation circle in the bottom of an empty basin and touch it, the water molecules in the air condense and form water inside the basin, though the air feels dryer for a moment everything slowly evens itself out.

Eventually Josh kicks us out of the room while he suits her up for a new automail leg. Leigh and I sit outside the door with that military boy beside us. None of us speak. My arm twitches as I wait, Josh says that when you link the nerves it hurts a lot, most men cry. Maybe since the woman's unconscious she won't hurt as bad. A scream pierces the air and Leigh and I grab hands tightly. Moments pass and Josh exits wiping his forehead with a bloody rag.

"She just needs rest." He informs the man.

"Yes sir! Thank you sir!"

Josh smiles warmly and ruffles the top of my head and then Leigh's. "You two did a good job. Thanks." I beam up at him under his praise. "Now, we should talk about payment Erics." Josh leans back into his chair, "Since it's a rush call and a new limb… let's see…." Josh's nose wiggles as he calculates a price. When he calls it I'm shocked at how expensive it is. "Oh, and I'll take 10 percent because its you Erics… and another 10 because it's a woman."

The man, Erics, salutes, "Thank you Captain!"

"Captain?" Leigh asks. My eyes dart between Erics and Josh. "You're a part of the military?"

Josh leans back into his chair and smiles, "Yea, I'm a part of the military, I run this podunk automail shop to help those around. I don't want a lot of people knowing I'm military though so…" He taps his lips and winks at us.

.-.