Charity

"See you at dinner, Mason!" Trisha called out as Mason locked up the front door of the shop.

"Will do! Thanks Trisha! Careful walking home! It's going to get dark soon!"

"Sure, sure!"

Trisha veered right at the next cross roads and stopped by her favorite outdoor café. They made the best fresh smoothies and squeezed juices. Her mother would kill her if she knew how much she drank their sugary, fruity, smooth drinks. They were addicting. It had been three months since they started their training. Every week, Izumi gave the girls each 1,500 Sen (A/N: About 1500 in Yen and $12 in US dollars) as an allowance in order to teach them to budget their money and spend wisely. And every day of the week, Trisha would buy her favorite drink: a pineapple slush drink with pineapple chunks. It cost her 248 Sen (A/N: About $2), which was just the right price to buy one each day for six days with some change left over at the end. And as a bonus, the stand had a stamp system. 6 stamps, and you got a free drink, which is how she got her drink for the 7th and final day of the week. The store owner loved her cause of all the business she got from Trisha. Izumi didn't exactly approve of what Trisha spent her money on, however she couldn't exactly berate her, as Trisha was doing exactly what Izumi wanted her to do: budget.

"Thank you, Miss Sasha!" Trisha sang to the store owner as she poked her straw through the lid and sipped her ice cold drink.

"Thank you, Trisha," Sasha tucked her red hair behind her ear and waved to her. "See you tomorrow."

"Of course you will!" Trisha laughed.

"Oh! Trisha! I forgot to tell you. We're not doing so well, so well so we're going to have to raise the price of some of our drinks since those are our lowest prices. Yours will be going up to 310 Sen (A/N: About $2.50)."

Trisha choked on her drink, her eyes tearing up from the tartness of the pineapple juice. She clenched her head as her brain began to feel like someone dumped ice in her skull. "What!? I don't get enough of an allowance to buy one every day for six days at that price! I'd be cut down to four days and some change!"

Sasha frowned, hanging her head. "I'm sorry, Trisha."

"Wait! Don't change the price! I'm responsible with my money so I'll ask Teacher for a raise then I can buy two drinks every day! And then I'll be able to get two free ones on Sundays!"

Sasha laughed lightly. "I don't think that would help. Although knowing you it might." Under her breath she added, "A raise? Do you work for Mrs. Curtis?"

Trisha sighed and turned to head home. "I hate economics. It's so unfair."

Her stop at the café made the walk back to the Curtis house a little longer than it would have if she just went straight home, but Trisha didn't mind. The pineapple slush made it worth it. Every day, she walked down the road to the main street and turned, going further up until she came to the street the Curtis' lived on. Also along the main road was a church. Usually it was quiet there. Sometimes there would be wedding or funeral services being held when Trisha passed by either on the way there or on the way back. Normally, she didn't really pay attention, however today, a girl on the steps caught her eye.

There was a funeral service. The attendees were all dressed in black, most of them crying. Six men carried a wooden casket down the steps of the church and carefully placed it in the back of the waiting hearse. Once the doors of the church and the hearse were closed, the attendees made their way to their cars and followed the hearse to the grave yard to bury the casket and the body inside. However, left behind was a young girl, about the same age as Trisha herself. She sat on the steps in her black dress and veiled hat and cried. She cried so hard and so loud it was hard not to look at her.

Trisha had only been to a couple funerals back in Risembool. One of them being one of her friend's father. The other was someone her parents knew from their childhood. Like this one, there were lots of tears. Trisha was too young and didn't know the pain of losing a loved one, so there were no tears from her. She knew very well how her grandmother's death affected her father and uncle, and she was lucky enough not to know that pain and suffering. However that also made her a bit insensitive. She felt guilty about her lack of sympathy for the victims of the deceased. And it was for that reason—or at least that's what Trisha told herself—that she turned and walked up to the girl on the steps of the church.

"Why didn't you go with them?" Were the first words out of her mouth as she stood in front of her.

The girl had long brown hair and green eyes. When she looked up, her pretty face was blotchy and red. Tear tracks stained her swollen cheeks. She wiped her face and responded with, "I-I didn't w-want t-to see them p-put her in the g-ground."

Trisha nodded. And sat down next to her, sipping carefully on her slush drink. "Mom, dad, brother? Friend?"

"Sister," she snubbed. "She was all I had." She began sobbing again.

Again, Trisha nodded. She thought of Nina. Nina obviously wasn't her real sister, but she was pretty damn close. Trisha didn't know what she'd do if anything happened to her. Well, she knew what her father wouldn't want her to do. That was obvious. But if Nina died… She shuddered.

"You… want to talk about it?"

The girl looked back up at her suspiciously. "Why?"

"Keeping it bottled up inside is bad for you. Grief can kill people in more ways than you can imagine."

The girl thought about it, then nodded. She took off her hat and set it between them. She smoothed her hair back and took a deep breath. "My name is Charity. My sister, Gloria, was an amazing alchemist. Our father taught her. He was a state alchemist who made it to the rank of Lieutenant. Our mother was an army nurse. They both died in the war against Drachma. After that, Gloria took care of us both. She used her alchemy to keep up a farm and orchard that we lived off of by growing our own food and selling what we couldn't keep. Her fruit and vegetables were the best. They never went bad. Her crops never died once. She would even donate extra crops to help feed the soldiers, since our father served. She was amazing. She taught me her alchemy, but I'm nowhere a great as she was.

"Almost a week ago in West City, she was taking some produce to a buyer who was interesting in buying the bulk of our crops each harvest. If the buyer liked the produced, he would have been our biggest consumer. She was crossing the tracks when a runaway train hit her. The train's breaks snapped and it couldn't stop. She was killed instantly. And to make it worse, the buyer saw it as bad luck and pulled out of the deal."

"I heard about that," Trisha nodded. "A lot of people died that day. It was a disaster." She turned to Charity. "I'm sorry."

Charity hiccupped then started crying once again. "I miss her so much! I don't know what to do without her!"

Trisha cautiously placed her hand on Charity's back and rubbed in circles, not knowing what else to do. She gazed down at her feet as she entered deep into thought.

This girl was an alchemist. And she had just lost her last surviving family member. Someone that meant the world to her. Someone who kept her on her feet. And she lost her in a freak accident during a meeting that would make or break their future.

She was an alchemist.

Her father had taught her enough and told her enough stories for Trisha to know that death and alchemy didn't mix. Where there was death, and there were alchemists, there could also be attempts at alchemy's biggest taboo: human transmutation.

Trisha blinked and abruptly stood up. She recalled that today was Monday. She had just spent the first of her allowance on her usual drink. She looked down at said drink. She had exactly 1,252 Sen left. And right now this girl needed a distraction. She pulled the girl up to her feet and dragged her off in the opposite direction of the Curtis house.

"Come on."

"Wha—Where are you taking me?!"

"Shopping!" Charity blinked and Trisha turned and grinned at her. "My name is Trisha by the way. Trisha Elric!"

Charity's mouth fell open slightly, then she smiled lightly at her. "Thank you… Trisha."

Trisha pushed the door to Dublith's best bookstore open and the two girls walked in. True, this was Trisha's idea of shopping. She didn't care about clothes or shoes. She loved books. She could spend all day in a bookstore or a library.

"Do you like to read, Charity?" Trisha asked.

Charity nodded with a smile. "Yes. I love to. But I can't always afford new books."

"Don't worry. Today is on me. So pick out whatever you want."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course!" Trisha beamed and dragged her over to the alchemy section. "I hope they have some good alchemy books."

"Me too. I want to get better at it so I can keep my sister's farm and orchard the way it was when she…" Charity's head fell and her shoulders shook.

Trisha bit her lip and quickly looked over the shelf of books. Thankfully, her eyes just so happened to spot a book titled "Alchemy in Agriculture." "Oh! Look! Here's one!" She pulled the book off the shelf and put it in Charity's hands.

Charity wiped her eyes and looked down at the book. She studied it for a minute before opening the cover to a random page. Unfolded in front of her was a picture of a tree from leaves to roots, and being pushed through the roots were nutrients from the earth, kick started by alchemy. The adjacent page showed the circle and its runes that would activate this fertilizing transmutation. Charity smiled and ran her fingers over the picture of the tree, thinking of how she always watched her sister perform her alchemy to bring life to her crops.

Trisha watched her in relief. She sighed happily and said, "You know what beats grief?" Charity looked up at her. "Good memories. If you remember all the good times you had with her, the grief can't overtake you. Gloria lives on in you through your memory of her."

Charity nodded and smiled again.

Trisha smiled back. "Let's find some more!" She turned enthusiastically back to the shelf.

"Okay," Charity said with more pep this time.

The two of them spent at least half an hour scanning the shelf of alchemy books. Next to them were a stack of ten books: three on agricultural alchemy, two on biological alchemy, two on intermediate alchemy and three on different ways to draw and use transmutation circles, as well as more advanced runes and circles. They were just about to pick the books they were going to buy and leave when Charity noticed a book that was different from the others.

"Hey," she picked it up off the shelf. It was small and leather bound. "Is this a journal?"

Trisha put away the book she was looking at and turned to look. "Hey! It is!" Trisha took the book and flipped through it. It was handwritten in ink. There were notes and drawings all over it. The drawings were definitely alchemy related, however he words were describing something totally different.

"Are these… song lyrics? Wow these are old songs. My parents used to listen to these," Trisha scoffed. Then suddenly it hit her. "Oh wow! This is an alchemist's research journal! The song lyrics are a code!"

"Really?!" Charity leaned over and watched as Trisha slowly flipped through the journal. "What do you think the person was researching?"

Trisha shook her head. "No idea. And we won't ever know unless we crack the code."

"Let's do it! Let's buy it and crack the code!"

"Yeah, that's a tall order. Some alchemists use easy codes, but most alchemists have really hard ones," Trisha laughed.

"Are you good at cracking alchemists' codes?" Charity looked up at her hopefully.

"Well…. I wrote my first code when I was twelve." Charity's eyes bugged out of her head. Trisha laughed again. "But my dad cracked it within less than an hour. The good thing is, he then made one for me—a hard one, even for a skilled alchemist—and I cracked it by dinnertime."

"Then you can do it!?"

"I guess I could. But I wouldn't have much time to do it. I have training and assignments with Mrs. Curtis," Trisha smiled sadly. "But I'll tell you what. I'll give you some pointers, and you can try and crack it by yourself. I'll help you when you can. Consider it an alchemy lesson."

Charity smiled brightly and nodded. Trisha turned over the book to look at the price sticker on the back. "Ugh. That much for a freaking journal?"

"It's okay. I'll put some of mine back," Charity took the journal and one of the books she picked out and put the rest back. She hugged the journal and the book on agricultural alchemy to her chest with a smile.

Trisha laughed and picked two of the books she picked out then stood up. "Alright. Let's pay for them and get out of here. I'm sure Teacher is pissed because I'm not back yet. Dinner is probably already done."

"I'm sorry to cause you trouble," Charity frowned.

"No, it's no trouble," Trisha shook her head and placed her hand on Charity's shoulder. "You needed some company."

"Thank you, Trisha," Charity hugged her after their books were paid for.

Hugging her back, she said, "No need to thank me. And if you need someone to talk to, I'll be in Dublith for a while. And even after I leave, we can write each other and call."

Charity nodded as they stood outside the store. "Well, thank you again. And I'll stop by tomorrow when you're not busy. See you tomorrow!" Charity ran off towards home.

Trisha waved with a smile, and as soon as she was out of sight, her smile drooped and her hand fell to her side. "I hope she'll be okay…"

Suddenly the female clerk from the bookstore opened the door and shouted out to her. "Miss Elric! Izumi Curtis just called! She wants you home right away! She sounded pretty mad! She said 'If you're not home in ten minutes you're not getting any dinner!'"

"Dammit! She's making roast beef tonight! No way am I missing that!" Trisha booked it down the road towards the Curtis house.

Reviews are always welcomed! Constructive criticism only please. No flaming. Flaming makes everyone sad. :( Also, an interesting last name for Charity would be greatly appreciated! I suck at names. XD