Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arakawa Hiromu.

Recap: Claire arrives in Xenotime, and she manages to get Verucio to let her stay with him. She meets Elisa, and she finds out about her illness. She also runs into the fake Elrics and ends up eating with them and Elisa at Elisa's family restaurant. Claire tries to get Russell to tell her about Magwar's research, but he doesn't tell her anything useful.

Chapter 7 ~ Nothing of the Past

Resembool had always been a quiet, uneventful town where anything unexpected rarely occurred. Every day, the farmers worked tirelessly fields. Every day, the children played tag around the lush trees and over the stretching hills and across the small, trickling streambeds. Every day, the birds would chirp a new tune. Resembool was simply a happy rural town.

Well, at least for the most part.

Nothing had been quite the same since their mother had died.

He could feel it, the void in his life where his mother used to be. Every morning, he still thought that perhaps he'd wake up to hear her calling him down to breakfast and this was all really a nightmare.

But this nightmarish reality – he and Al could fix it.

Those had been his thoughts that day. Those had been his thoughts every day since the day their mother had died.

That day, though, something unexpected happened. A little girl who he had never seen before knocked on the door. She looked to be around Ed's age, with dark brown hair and bright amber eyes.

"Umm…" she began. "Is Hohenheim-san home?"

That was their first meeting.

If Claire had known that the real Elrics had arrived in Xenotime just a little bit earlier that night, she wouldn't have come rushing in to check up on Elisa-chan with Verucio-san.

But she didn't know, and she was worried about Elisa-chan, so she did.

"Elisa!" Verucio-san exclaimed frantically as he rushed into their house. His breathing was heavy – he had been gathering lemons when he'd heard about the accident. "Is Elisa alright?"

Claire, on the other hand, casually walked up behind him. While she was also worried about the little girl, she knew how to keep her head in such a situation. Upon hearing that Elisa-chan had been involved in an accident, Verucio-san hadn't even waited around long enough to hear that some travelling alchemist had saved her. Claire assumed that if she had been "saved" then she was probably alright. And if not… arriving there faster wasn't going to change what had already happened.

The second Claire saw who the "travelling alchemist" was though, her composedness gave way to dismay. There they were – Ed and Al, the short one and the big one, sitting at one of the restaurant's tables with a huge plate of chicken in front of them. I should have known… Claire thought grimly, wishing terribly she could make herself invisible. Sadly, everyone had turned to face her and Verucio-san since the little girl's father was now yelling at him… which meant that, yes, the Elrics' eyes were boring right into her in a mixture of confusion and shock, asking her why she was there.

"You're wrong!" Elisa-chan argued against her father's accusation of Verucio-san forcing her to work in the mines. "Uncle Verucio didn't do anything bad! I asked him to let me help-" Suddenly, she broke into a fit of painful coughs, temporarily diverting everyone's attention from Claire and the older man.

"I'm sorry, Elisa," her father said worriedly before grabbing a nearby glass of water. "Drink this."

A motion nearby Claire caught her eye, and she saw Verucio-san stare at the ground, almost ashamed, before placing his basket of freshly picked lemons on the table. The man didn't speak much; it was difficult to tell what was going through his mind. "Sorry," he apologized before turning to leave and walking out the door.

The man had already left before Claire had a chance to follow him, but she decided it would probably be better for her to stick around at this point in order to make sure the Elrics didn't reveal anything about her. Although she didn't think Al would blurt out anything unnecessary, she did think that Ed might. Claire prayed that Elisa-chan and her family would be able to keep Ed's attention for awhile longer.

"Uncle Verucio said that your lemon pie was the best, Dad," Elisa-chan said quietly. "He said that it's a shame there aren't many farms left here."

"But once the Philosopher's Stone is completed, the city will prosper again!" one of the men said enthusiastically. "Once that happens, we can just buy fruits instead of farming them."

"The Philosopher's Stone?" Ed demanded. Suddenly he was incredibly interested. Well, Claire thought, if there's one thing that will make him forget that I'm here, it's that.

"Yes, yes," Elisa-chan's father said. "You two came to help with Magwar-sama's research to create the Philosopher's Stone, right?"

"…Huh?" asked a very confused Ed. He probably didn't have any idea what the man was talking about.

"Alchemist-san, please help us make the Philosopher's Stone," he continued. Claire vaguely wondered of the likeliness of random travelers to help with this research. "We want to regain the city of gold, Xenotime."

"Please, Alchemist-san!" another man begged as the whole crowd of men in the room surrounded Ed and Al. Claire remained by the doorway, finding no reason to get herself caught up in that crowd.

"It seems like things are complicated here," Ed said a bit nervously, "but I guess I'll try meeting that Magwar person first."

"By the way…" one man in the crowd began, "may we hear your names?"

Oh boy, Claire thought as she cupped her face in her hand in resignation as to what was to come next, they dropped the bomb.

"My name?" Ed asked boastfully. "I'm Edward. Edward Elric."

"I'm his little brother, Alphonse," Al said a bit bashfully. "Alphonse Elric."

Quite predictably, the crowd stared at them with open-mouths, processing what they just heard. Claire didn't have to be telepathic to know what they were thinking. She had seen the townspeople's relationship with the fake Elrics firsthand – there was no way the townspeople were going to trust these two newcomers over them.

"The Elric brothers?" a slightly balding man asked, to confirm the group's suspicions. "The State Alchemist?"

"Yeah!" Ed grinned.

And was mercilessly thrown out of the restaurant along with the suit of armor that was his brother.

"What was that for?" Ed objected loudly.

"Shut up!" Elisa-chan's father shouted angrily. "The real Elric brothers are already over there!" He gestured towards Magwar-sama's mansion. "Come again when you feel like telling us your real names!"

"HEY!" Ed shouted back and rudely pointed in Claire's direction. "That girl behind you can vouch for our authenticity!"

"Me?" Claire asked, feigning innocence with a dash of surprise and pretending to not have the slightest idea what Ed was talking about. Once more, everyone was facing her. Well, she did know this was coming, but how dare he get her involved. He was going to pay for that.

"Who else?"

"Hmph. I don't know who you think you're fooling," Claire said as she glared at him. Again, she wore the mask of an actress as she went along with the emotions of the townspeople. "But I don't know you."

And before Ed could object for a second time, the door was slammed in his face.

Despite the disturbance Ed and Al had caused at Elisa-chan's family restaurant, the early night was tranquil with only a few stars starting to speckle the vast violet sky. As she and Elisa-chan walked down the street, golden lights shone from warm houses, and chirping crickets could be heard in the distance. Every once in awhile, an owl who surely lived in one of the many trees surrounding the town hooted, somewhat disturbing the typical night sounds generated by the crickets. It wasn't yet so dark that it was difficult to see, but the crescent moon had already taken its place above them.

The little girl walking beside her was quiet, probably upset about the way her parents had treated Verucio-san. The moment Claire had announced she was going back to Verucio-san's house, Elisa-chan had immediately announced that she wanted to take Claire there. It had been obvious that her father didn't want her to spend any more time with the man, but Elisa-chan had managed to convince him by telling him that Claire had a bad sense of direction and she still hadn't quite memorized the route to get there. Since Claire figured it really wouldn't do any harm to go along with Elisa-chan's story, she agreed apologetically.

Claire sighed, glancing towards the little girl. Although she didn't hate the silence, it was boring, and she hated being bored.

"I wish Papa and Uncle Verucio would get along," Elisa-chan said quietly as she kicked at pebbles in the road. "It bugs Papa that Uncle Verucio doesn't like Magwar-sama's research."

"Why doesn't he like Magwar-sama's research?" Claire asked. She had been wondering exactly why the two brothers were fighting. "It seems to me as if it will greatly benefit you the town."

"I know, but…" Elisa-chan frowned. "Uncle Verucio thinks Xenotime was better off as a farming town."

"Why's that?"

"He said that our greed is blinding us or something like that. I don't understand what he meant by that though."

"Hmm…"

"But still," Elisa-chan said, changing the subject, "it's not Uncle Verucio's fault that I went to the mines!"

Claire blinked. "It wasn't?"

"No," the little girl told her. "I asked him if I could go to the mines because I wanted to see Papa…"

Ah, Claire thought, he wouldn't tell her "No" if she asked him that way. Despite his seemingly cold nature, that man has a real soft side for kids…

"I don't want Papa to blame him, but I don't think Papa will listen to me," Elisa-chan continued. She clearly felt bad about worsening the relationship between the men, even if was only accidental.

The fifteen-year-old said nothing, unsure of what to say. She didn't know Elisa-chan's family matters well enough to give her own opinion, but she did want the younger girl to cheer up. She's a sweet kid, Claire thought. "You'll just have to wait for them to work out their differences I suppose," she eventually said. Then, changing the topic and ruffling the little girl's hair, she asked, "You and Al-kun seemed to be good friends."

At this, the girl smiled. "Yeah! He's like my brother."

"Haha, really?" Claire asked, somewhat amused as she wondered if Little Al's "like" of Elisa wasn't slightly different than Elisa-chan's "like." Childhood innocence was awfully nice, but very fleeting. Maybe I can lend Little Al a bit of a hand, Claire thought. "Want to tell a story while we walk?"

"A story?" the little girl questioned.

"Yup. About a princess and a peasant."

"Who's the princess and who's the peasant?"

"Well, the princess was a cute, brown-haired little girl named Elisa," Claire explained. "She was the beloved princess of a tiny town, and she was nice to everyone."

"I'm the princess?"

"Yup."

"So then who's the peasant?"

"The peasant was a blond-haired boy who loved nature," Claire told her. Elisa-chan was staring at her expectantly, having stopped kicking at the pebbles on the ground. "His dream was to grow a beautiful garden of trees and flowers for the wonderful princess."

The little girl giggled. "Is his name Al?"

"Oh, so you knew?" Claire teased lightly.

Elisa-chan nodded enthusiastically before asking, "So what happened?"

"Well…" Claire began, formulating the story as she went. Although the story wasn't in a whole ton of detail, Claire faked the voice of the kind elderly woman who advised the blond peasant through his trials and pretended to roar like the evil dragon. She played all the characters except for the princess, who she let Elisa-chan herself play. It was a never-ending tale, one where the blond peasant was willing to do anything to procure the plants he wanted to grow in his garden for the princess and the princess would always try to help him in his endeavors whenever she could.

As they walked, the story twisted and turned, the characters' escaping from one plot twist after another until Verucio-san's lonely little house was finally in sight. Deciding that now was a good time to end the story, Claire said, "And then the peasant boy had a garden of all the most beautiful and exotic plants around the world."

"The princess was amazed by the peasant boy," Elisa-chan added. "She had never seen anything so beautiful before!"

"Yes," Claire said. "And then they lived happily ever after."

"The end," Elisa-chan finished as she opened the door to her uncle's house without even bothering to knock. "Uncle Verucio!" she called as she ran inside.

Claire stood outside for a little longer, choosing to lean against the rough brick wall of Verucio-san's house. She didn't want to impose on them while Elisa-chan apologized. Turning her gaze towards the sky, Claire watched the pale moon, mesmerized by its perfectly round shape and creamy glow. Sometimes, she just wanted to reach up to touch it, even though she knew it was farther away than her arm could ever reach.

That story-telling with Elisa-chan though… it sure did bring back memories. It's been so long since I've told a story like that, Claire thought as she smiled nostalgically. The last time was when I still lived with onee-chan…

How many years had that been now?

Claire studied the endless sky as she listened to the muffled voices of Elisa-chan and her uncle. She had been such a rash little kid, and that rashness was what had led her to where she was now. Her thoughts drifted towards her older sister again, but quickly, she shook her head to drive them from her mind. Getting preoccupied by them would do her no good…

Suddenly, Claire's eyes flicked towards the direction of Magwar-sama's mansion, breaking her away from whatever train of thought she hoped to free herself from and alerting her to the bright blue light that had flashed there for just a moment.

Was that… alchemy? Claire's eyes widened in realization. The blue light was already gone. How dare they go to investigate Magwar-sama's mansion without me.

"Claire-nee, aren't you coming in?" Elisa-chan asked, poking her head out the door. "I'm gonna go back home now."

"Haha, yeah, I'm gonna go in. I was just enjoying the night air a bit," Claire told her absentmindedly. She was glad that Elisa-chan had probably managed to apologize to her uncle quite easily, but at the moment, Claire's mind was more focused on how quickly the Elric brothers were going to get caught after breaking into the mansion in such a conspicuous way. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah!" the little girl said as Claire walked into the house and she walked out.

"Alright, bye bye!"

"Bye!" Elisa-chan waved. Claire waved back before closing the door and going to find the room Verucio-san was in. If Ed and Al wanted a place to stay for the night, Verucio-san was probably the only one who would take them after they broke into the mansion. Despite his exterior, the man loved kids too much to let them sleep outside.

"Damn it," Ed cursed as he lay on the hard-packed dirt of a cliff overlooking the whole of Xenotime. His swollen cheek stung from the imposter's punch and he had to run away quickly from the mansion guards. "I'm hurting all over."

"That imposter was strong," Al commented, giving what Ed felt was way too much credit to the guy.

"It must've been the stone's power," Ed said stubbornly.

"Then is that Philosopher's Stone complete?" his younger brother questioned.

"Cheh." Ed sat up, suddenly feeling determined again. "I'll be sure to find out."

"I wonder what those brothers' names are. Those two must have real names," Al said thoughtfully before pausing for a moment. "…Is the elder brother older than you?"

"Don't jump to conclusions based on height alone!"

Al held up his hands apologetically. "Sorry, sorry," he told his older brother.

Footsteps crunched the dirt behind them; Ed and Al turned to see who it was.

"… So this is where you were?" the dark-brown haired girl asked, looking slightly exasperated. "It was a pain to find you, you know."

"Claire!" Al exclaimed. "…That reminds me, I wanted to ask earlier, but what are you doing here?"

"Yeah," Ed said. He had already turned back in the direction he had originally been facing. "Stalker," he added.

"Who are you calling a stalker?" Claire demanded. Ed didn't bother to turn and face her, but she was probably pouting with her hands on her hips or something. That was just how she was. "I was here first, thank you very much. I was in Liore first too, for that matter."

"Whatever."

"You ought to be more grateful!" the fifteen year old girl complained. "I did go through the trouble of finding you guys a place to stay you know. I asked Verucio-san, and he said it was alright as long as I came to get you."

"Oh really?" Al asked, pleased. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome."

Ed said nothing, continuing the glare into space. He had a lot of things running through his mind just then. Meeting Claire again in Xenotime had certainly been a surprise, but it wasn't so farfetched to guess that it probably had something to do with the military. There had been a lot he wanted to ask her back in Liore, but he hadn't had the chance then. "…Why did you join the military?" he finally asked.

"Huh?" Claire asked. Apparently, she hadn't been expecting that question.

"Why did you join the military?" Ed repeated. His voice was monotone and dull as he concealed his emotion.

"Nii-san…"

"No reason," she said nonchalantly. "I just felt like it."

Just… felt like it? Don't kid me, Ed thought, gritting his teeth. Standing up, he grabbed Claire by the collar of her hoodie. His face was contorted with anger that he couldn't help but let spill over. "No one joins the military because they just freaking feel like it!" he shouted.

"Nii-san!"

"Calm down and let go." Claire slapped his hand away from her collar. Ed let go but continued to clench his fists in anger. Al was looking between the two of them worriedly.

"… Do you even know what it means to join the military?" Ed growled quietly before repeating in a louder tone, "Do you?"

To become a dog of the military was to become a tool. A tool that had to follow orders, no matter what. A tool that would kill, if need be.

Her amber eyes watched him calmly, almost as if to further aggravate him. She acted as if she knew what she had done, as if she knew what it meant to become the military's dog, but if she did, hell if "I just felt like it" was her reason.

"Nii-san, she's right," Al said, gently grabbing his shoulder. "Calm down."

"Thanks, Al," she told him.

"Tch," Ed said before grouchily sitting down again and allowing himself to hide his face in his arms as he let go of some of his frustration. Like hell he believed that she joined the military because she just felt like it. There had to be another reason that she just wasn't telling them.

She never tells us anything about herself though, Ed's mind said, so why would she start now? She never even really explained why she came to Resembool all those years ago, except to look for that bastard.

He couldn't recall one word she ever spoke about her past. They didn't know who her family ways, where she had come from, or why she was looking for Hohenheim.

We really don't know anything about her…

From behind him, he could hear Claire sigh. "…What have you two been up to for the past three years anyways?" she asked, and then added, "Besides military stuff, I mean. I always get to see the reports about that."

It wouldn't be bad for her to rely on me and Al from time to time, Ed thought angrily. She was too independent to do that though, and Ed knew it. How could he not, after all that time she had lived with them in Resembool?

The only thing she ever told us after asking about that damn bastard was that she needed a place to stay. Ed wondered if Claire had given an explanation to the old granny though because Pinako Rockbell had agreed to let her stay with her and Winry.

"There've been a lot of things," Al said, laughing slightly. Ed glanced towards his brother, hoping that Al hadn't been bothered too much by Ed's outburst. His younger brother always managed to keep his emotions in check so much better than he did.

"Really?" Claire asked.

"Yeah," Al told her. "We've done a lot of travelling and stuff…"

"The Philosopher's Stone is still pretty far off though, eh?"

"Yeah…"

"Ah well," Claire said. "I've done my fair share of travelling too. I usually get stuck with information gathering tasks and whatnot, considering that I work for the investigation department."

"Oh, you do?" Al asked. "So you work under Hughes-san then?"

"Yup!" Claire smiled. "After I moved out of Win-chan's place and went to Central, Maes-san let me stay with him and his family."

"Maes-san?"

"He told me to call him that, since I'm living with him and all," she explained. Ed found himself picking at the sparse patches of grass in front of him as he eavesdropped on the two of them.

"Oh," Al said. "He and Gracia-san are really nice. How's Elysia-chan?"

"Ah, Maes-san told me that you were there when she was first born! She's gotten a lot bigger since then. She's so cute!"

"It would certainly be nice to see her again."

"I'm sure she'd be glad to see you too! She's really friendly," Claire told him. She paused for a moment before moving on to a new topic. "You know, you guys really ought to send letters to Win-chan."

"Ahaha…" Al laughed guiltily. Ed fiddled with the grass some more.

"She won't say so, but I'm sure she misses you. And you guys never write."

"Yeah, whatever," Ed said, finally choosing to speak. He was still annoyed with Claire. "We'll write whenever we get around to it."

"If you aren't going to write, you should at least go see her."

"No," Ed said stubbornly. They had left for a reason – to get their bodies back. And they weren't going to rest until they got them back. What didn't Claire understand about that?

"How unromantic," Claire commented.

Ed glared at her, silent for a short while. He managed to control himself enough this time not to have another angry outburst, but only because he knew that starting another argument with her was going to get him absolutely nowhere. He did have to admit it was somewhat nice to see her again after all this time. When he next spoke, he changed the topic. "…By the way," he started, deciding is was time to get an answer for a question he had had for quite some time. "After we left Resembool to train with sensei, did you read the research data in our house?"

"Yup," Claire stated matter-of-factly. "How'd you know?"

"You did?" Al asked. Apparently he hadn't thought that far into it, but Claire was the type to always stick her nose where it didn't belong. She was far too curious for her own good.

"…Just seemed like something you'd do," Ed grumbled. That irked him. He didn't like the fact that she had read their father's research. There was nothing he could do about it now, though. Besides, she didn't know alchemy, so it wasn't as if she could use it to perform a human transmutation or anything… A thought crossed Ed's mind. "You were looking for that bastard when you first came to Resembool, right?"

"Assuming that 'that bastard' is Hohenheim, yes, I was. You sure did get angry at me when I first asked you about him. You practically attacked me," Claire accused.

…Yeah, Ed remembered that. But that wasn't the point. "Did you ever find him?" Ed asked.

"Nope."

"Cheh," Ed cursed under his breath. Their father really was nothing more than a good-for-nothing. He was never their when they needed him.

Not once had he been there for them.

Not once.

"Well anyways," Claire said, "You guys just tried to break into Magwar-sama's mansion, right?"

"Ah, yeah…" Al said, seeming somewhat embarrassed about it.

Ed, on the other hand, said, "Yeah, and?"

"You got caught," she stated simply. Ed found himself annoyed with the bluntness of her statement. She continued, "Are you guys going to break in again?"

Al looked towards Ed for an answer, and Ed said indignantly, "Of course, what do you expect? There's no way I'm letting those imposters run around using our names!"

"Alright," Claire said. "Next time, tell me, and I'm coming with you."

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Ed said, pretending to not really care whether she was there or not.

"Why do you want to come, Claire?" Al asked, surprised by her request. Ed suspected that he wasn't going to like the answer to that question.

"It involves my current assignment," Claire told him. Ed was right – he didn't like it. "In any case," she went on, "Verucio-san's going to be worried if I don't get back soon. You guys coming?"

"I'm coming!" Al said. "You're staying at his place too?"

"Yup. Ed, you are coming right?"

Ed stood up, brushing any possible dirt off of himself. "Yeah."

He wouldn't forgive Claire for joining the military, but she wasn't as shallow as she made herself sound, he knew that much.

Whatever her reason was, he'd just have to trust that it was a good one.

Author's note: This chapter is actually around the length that I plan my chapters to be but they very rarely are! Lol o_o

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, there are no romantic feelings between Claire and either of the Elrics.

This chapter is mostly informational because I wanted to explain Claire's relationship with Ed and Al a bit more. I hope you found it interesting, despite the lack of action.
There is a link on my profile to a picture I drew of Ed and Envy in a school uniform-ish outfit on my profile, if you want to check it out ;)
On the subject of Envy: I promise he will appear shortly after this arc finishes! I needed to include this arc for various reasons, and unfortunately, Envy is not just going to randomly pop up in Xenotime. So please don't shoot me x_x
(My estimate for his appearance will be after 2 more chapters. But this is just an estimate, keep that in mind.)

What do you think of Claire's relationship with Ed and Al? Did I manage to explain clear enough that it made sense?

Thanks for reading~