A/N – First I would like to apologize for not updating at all last week, but I'll make it up to you by getting the next chapter up as quickly as possible.

The last of the chapter is from Envy's POV, which should make a lot of you happy :P Please tell me what you think. You can do that by reviewing. :) C'mon you know you want to!

Have a good weekend, all you lovely readers ^^


Pain is Temporary

"I can't do it Uncle Sam, I just can't!" Nine-year old Erica said, tears running down her cheeks. She was standing at the bottom of the stairs, shivering, partly from the cold, but mostly from the tears.

Sam sighed, glancing up at the high tower. It was the former study of his father, Erica's grandfather. It had been locked up after his death and no one had been in there since. Not even Abraham, who'd been given the key.

But that was about to change, Sam thought with a wry grin while looking down at the key he'd 'borrowed' from his brother's study. His smile disappeared however, when he glanced at the frightened girl beside him. He'd wanted to cheer her up, but thus far it certainly wasn't working.

"It's so high." She fretted, glancing upwards. "I don't like heights."

Sam mumbled something under his breath – her mother had been afraid of heights as a child as well. He sat leaned down to the girl's eye-level.

"What's so scary about heights?"

"You can fall down!" She insisted, a mix of annoyance and dominance in her tone.. He almost smiled, thinking that despite the pigtails and tears, she looked very commanding in that second. "And Uncle Sam, if you fall down from all the way up there-"she pointed with her arm straight in the air "- then you die."

"Do you honestly think I'm going to let you fall down?"

Erica chewed on her bottom-lip, contemplating the question. Then her brow furrowed.

"Would you be upset if I said yes?"

He laughed again. "A little maybe. But don't be frightened alright? Just remember Erica, pain is temporary, quitting is forever."

Erica sighed. "You always say such stupid things – what am I supposed to use that for if I fall down and die?"

Sam smiled again and patted her on the head. "You won't fall down, if you don't want to fall down. We Jordon's don't give up that easily, do we?"

Erica mumbled something he couldn't hear and then sighed. "No, I guess we don't."

"Oh come on, are you really giving up that easily?" The voice was loud, easily reaching Erica's ears as she walked past, and breaking her out of her thoughts. She stopped short, her head turning in the direction of the sound. Her vision was blocked by a large bush however.

But she recognized the voice. She ran around the bush, stopping short just beside it, not wanting to be noticed.

On the grassy field of the secluded park were Edward and Alphonse Elric, busy with training. Erica watched with sparkling eyes as they threw punches and kicks at each other, not once breaking a sweat. Where had they learned that?

And how can Al move so swiftly in that armor? She wondered, frowning. He was even faster than Edward. Actually, from what she could tell, it looked like he was beating the crap out of his older brother. She smiled wryly – maybe if Ed grew a few inches he would be able to win.

Erica had been taking a short walk, desperate to get out of the house; the day after the Fuhrer's 'news' she'd been inside all day, not even coming out of the room to talk. She'd had no desire to, and had simply sat on her bed all day long, staring out her window. Once, she was sure she saw Rafael walking past, but when the man looked up at her, she could see that he was older and his facial features very different, yet reminiscent in some way. The man had smirked at her, and she could've sworn it was the same smirk that Rafael had worn. It had given her shivers.

It wasn't until the evening when Hughes had come up to bring her some food. She'd been enough in her own mind to apologize for being so weird and distant, but he'd dismissed it, instead stating that she could always come to him if she wanted to talk. At that comment, tears had sprung to her eyes and she hadn't been able to resist hugging him. Before leaving her to her own thoughts again, he'd said something about Edward Elric might needing or wanting her help with her father's information. She hadn't given it much thought at the time, but now that she saw them here, she couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement at the prospect. If she could get better access to Abraham's research she might find out something before the Military did. It was like giving them the finger after trapping her, and however useless it might be, she knew she desperately wanted the satisfaction.

Erica played silently with the thought that it might be a trick of fate, her going for some fresh air and seeing them. Her inner Abraham was snorting at it, but she chose to ignore it.

As she'd predicted, the fight ended with Al winning. He said something she couldn't make out, and Ed huffed and threw himself on his back in the grass. Al turned around, and she noticed that Havoc and two others from Mustang's staff was also present, sitting in the shadow of one of the trees. Without much other thought, she decided to go join them.

"Erica, hi!" Havoc yelled, jumping a little when a large branch from a nearby tree suddenly fell to the ground. Erica paid no heed to it, but continued her pace forward. Al turned around and smiled, and Ed lifted his head to look at her. She changed her course a little, stopping right next to him.

"You're blocking the sun." He mumbled, but there was no resentment in his voice. Actually, he was smiling just the tiniest bit. Erica remembered her first impression of him; as a childish and violent brute who wouldn't see sense. She wondered if it were Abrahams genes that made her so judgmental; she didn't want to be.

"Sorry." She replied, shifting a little. "Good workout?"

Edward shrugged, still watching her closely. It made her a little uncomfortable, but she didn't flinch.

"It was alright.." He suddenly reached his hand upwards, and she took it without second thought, pulling him to his legs. As he stood next to her, she discovered that she was actually a good deal taller than him; she decided not to point it out, after all, she was a few years older than him. They walked over to the others, side by side, and she realized that this was a completely different Ed than the tense, determined boy she'd stood with in the Fuhrer's office two days ago.

"Hi." She smiled as she reached the others, a little surprised as Havoc gave her a one-armed hug, a new cigarette already dangling between his lips. The small gesture filled her with content and warmth that had nothing to do with the hot sun.

"I don't believe we've been properly introduced." One of Mustang's men said, a small man with glasses. He reached out a hand and she gently shook it. "I'm Lieutenant Kain Fuery. And this is Heymans Breda." Breda nodded once at her, his arms folded over his chest as he leaned against the tree-trunk.

"Nice to meet you." Erica said, sitting down on the grass along with them. "Mustang gave all of you a day off?" She asked, slight disbelief in her voice. Both Havoc and Breda grinned widely, but it was Kain who answered;

"It's mine and Breda's, but Havoc was allowed to work outside for a while, seeing as how the weather's so nice."

"Yeah, we don't know when that might stop." Breda replied, his gruff but warm voice startling Erica a bit. "Winter's coming quickly."

"It never gets too cold in Central." Al remarked from his lying spot. He looked very content with his arms under his head (helmet) and staring into the sky. He must be very hot in all that armor, but he didn't take it off. Erica bit her lip to keep from asking; it wasn't any of her business.

"Still, we might as well enjoy it." Edward said. There was a little stress in his tone, and Erica wondered if he was anxious to get back in and study her father's material. Before she could ask, he whipped his head around and looked at her.

"By the way, I wanted to thank you." He said, his voice very genuine. "For your father's research and all. I understand it must be hard with him… you know, gone…" He stopped himself, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. Erica was about to answer, but stopped short when she noticed something.

He was still in the same black clothes as last, without the red coat however (still he must be melting too, a small voice mused) and also without his gloves. She'd been too fascinated by the fight itself before, to notice his hands..

Or, his right hand, that was definitely not a normal hand.

"You have automail?" She asked, blushing right after the words. "Oh, sorry, you don't have to answer that. Didn't want to blurt it out so suddenly…" She stopped her backtracking, watching his reaction closely. He'd become tense again, his arm stilling in midair. She could also feel Havoc, Fuery and Breda's eyes on her, and Al had suddenly become very still.

"Oh… yeah." Edward mumbled, slowly lowering his hand and looking at it. "I lost my arm in some of the rebellions up East."

Erica nodded sharply, not sure if it was just a painful subject or if he was lying.

"Sorry, it's none of my business. I just noticed." She mumbled, her eyes downcast. Her thoughts were going into frenzy. It was very painful, having automail attached, was it not? And he moved so swiftly with it, as if he'd been born with an arm of metal.

She remembered what her Uncle Sam had said; Pain is temporary, quitting is forever.

It seemed the Elric brothers where truly living by that code.

"It's alright." Ed said, smiling at her. Erica let out a sigh of relief as the tension left the small group; he clearly meant it, and she was glad to let the subject go.

"So, how is the research going?" She asked, hoping not to pry into anything, but not able to contain it anymore; after all, she did have some part of it, and should be able to know.

"It's going alright." Edward said, instinctively looking around as if checking to see if someone was watching. Erica wondered what he had gone through, to grow up so quickly, to become so cautious and wary.

"Okay. I'm glad." She said, feeling her respect for the small boy growing.. Edward flashed a smile, and she felt the last of her resentment go away; maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

*

Yesterday had been so tiring and boring that Envy had almost started cheering out loud when Erica had decided to simply take a little walk the next day. It might not cause any action, but at least he would get a chance to walk a little too, maybe even take on the form of Rafael and talk to her again. It had been fun toying with her last time, watching her green eyes blaze as she got annoyed and angry and flustered.

He shook his head, dismissing the thoughts of her eyes; he would never admit, not even to himself, that he was more fascinated with them than necessary. No good could come from it.

He'd taken on the form of a blackbird and followed her closely, trying not to land in a tree with too many other birds; animals had a better sense than humans, and most could tell that he wasn't really one of them. He'd entertained himself with thoughts of flying down and scaring her or perhaps turning into Rafael and stalking her for a little while, of course making sure that she noticed. He could just imagine the flabbergasted look on her face when she realized that she was being followed by the weird boy she'd encountered the other night. He grinned widely at the thought.

However, all thoughts of things like that were stopped as he both saw as much as felt, the presence of someone else.

Instant hate flared up inside him, and it was all he could do not to turn back into his normal shape and crush the skull of that filthy, that reeking, disgusting little midget….

He did a double-take through the air and – deeply annoyed – let the wind cool his anger down. He hated not being able to do things like that, hated that he had a bloody mission, and couldn't just go on a rampage. But this was more important. He had a mission…

He would never admit to himself either that the thought of green eyes yet again calmed him down. Even more annoyed with himself he flew down into a tree in the small park, scaring a few doves that where sitting there. He landed on the branch with too much force, and with a loud 'knack' it broke over in half and landed on the ground. He flew up to another branch, seating himself there and trying to focus, both on the group's conversation and on not to break this branch too; his anger was becoming increasingly harder to control, but it helped a little if he just didn't look at Fullmetal..

However, he couldn't help but look at him, as the dwarf took Erica's hand.. However, he didn't get really angry until she helped him up. The feeling even surprised him, although he took joy in it like he always did. What the hell? He'd never thought that Erica and the pipsqueak would get along at all. He'd at least thought that much of her – clearly he'd been wrong, and he couldn't for the un-life of him figure out why that bothered him.

Erica and Mini-Elric joined the others, and Envy nearly fell off his branch in boredom when he realized that they'd started talking about the weather. Honestly, how boring were these people?

The conversation perked up a little as she asked about his automail and then the research, but none of those topics were discussed more thoroughly. Soon they were talking about other things, and if he'd been able to, Envy was sure he would have fallen asleep a long time ago.

Time flew by fast, and suddenly it was a lot darker, Erica and the Elric-brothers were the only one in the park. Envy focused on their conversation again.

"No, it's fine, really." Erica said. "It's not that far, and I've kept you all day. I'm sure you're eager to get on with your research."

The brothers shared a look and Envy snorted; bloody hell, throw them a pretty girl and they forget everything about their life-mission. Ignoring the fact that he'd just mentally called Erica pretty, he added the term 'un-gentlemanly' to his list of things to possibly taunt Edward with. It wasn't very full of possibilities, but hell, he'd take anything he got. The list wouldn't hurt to get any longer, despite the hundreds of mental pages it was probably already filling.

Erica bid her goodbye to the brothers, an annoyingly pleasant smile on her face. Envy found a sudden urge to hit someone, hear their bones break; hear her bones break, possibly just her arm or something painful. She looked more content than he'd ever seen her before, and it was after speaking with bloody Fullmetal.

He turned around, still in bird-form, and noticed a scared squirrel looking at him with wide eyes. Smirking, he quickly changed his head into that of a snake, snapping after the small animal. It gave a high squeak, jumping high in the air, before disappearing into the tree. He laughed out loud, turning fully into a bird again, and swung himself into the air.

Watching Erica, he noticed that she took a longer route back to Hughes place. Maybe she was dragging it out, not wanting to be faced with questions at home? Or maybe she just enjoyed walking; it was a very pleasing evening after all.

And why the hell do I care? He wondered, flying a little higher while still keeping an eye on her. Because I don't have anything else to do. This sucks.

Well, he'd been bored for nearly two days now; Dante could only expect him to handle so much. With a wry grin he landed inside an alley a little behind her, checking that there were no peeking humans, before turning into the shape of Rafael Estrin yet again