Okay by now you shouldn't even trust that i'll update regularly anymore. However, I am OFFICALLY out of the woods (I was forced to be in my school's production of Into the Woods so I made a funny) and hopefully (HOPEFULLY) I can update a bit more frequently. Hopefully.

Chapter 10

I read for pretty much that whole day. I stopped a couple times to get water, but by the end of the day I'd gotten to chapter 11, 'Quidditch'.

I finished the chapter, and rubbed my throat. "Okay, that's it for today." I got up to refill my glass and drank it all in one.

I came back out and sat down again, still rubbing my throat. "Jeez, I've never read that much aloud before. My throat hurts now!"

"You're really good!" Al said encouragingly. "What do you think, brother?"

I looked over at Ed. For some reason, he'd turned somewhat pink. "Um… yeah…"

"Oh, come on!" Al sounded somewhat exasperated. "Can't you just answer?"

"I said YEAH, OKAY?!" He yelled. "OKAY, SHE'S GOOD!"

"Well, gee, thanks." I said somewhat dryly. The pink got a bit darker on Ed's cheeks.

"Sure…" he mumbled.

"I can read more tomorrow, if you'd like." I offered.

"Yeah," Ed agreed. "I have to admit, I want to know what's going to happen to Harry."

"That's sort of the point. J.K. Rowling is an amazing author!"

"So, this book is from your side?" Ed asked.

I looked down at the book, smiling fondly. "Yeah, it is. There are 7 books total."

Ed looked at me curiously. "So, what's your world like?"

"Well, as far as I can tell, there are two main differences." I told him. "First off, the year in my world is 2014."

He gaped at me. "B-b-but that's 100 years in the future!" he stammered.

"Yeah, I know. The clothes here are so strange to me. Let's see, what month is it?" I asked him. "Um, June." He replied. I received a shock; that's my birthday month!

"Hmm." I walked over to a small calendar on the wall that Al had gotten. "What's the date?"

"The 9th," Al said. "Why?"

I turned to the brothers. "Well, in 20 days, then, it's my birthday! I'll be turning 15!"

For some reason, that made me sad. I've always celebrated my birthdays with my family. This was going to be one empty feeling birthday.

Ed seemed to notice my gloom. "You said there were two differences," he prompted me. "What's the other one?"

I snapped out of it. "Oh, yeah. In our reality, alchemy doesn't exist."

"What?!" He gasped. "No alchemy?!"

"How do you get things done?" Al asked, incredulous.

I smiled. "In our world, we developed on a much different track. Alchemy was considered a 'dead science' a long time ago, so no one practices it. Even if they did, it wouldn't work. But we've made great leaps in engineering and electricity. We have planes and things like that, and we use light bulbs more frequently instead of lanterns and candles." I flopped down on the couch and sighed.

"What's a plane?" Al asked.

"It's a machine that can fly," I replied. "A lot of them are specialized to take people across the country."

Ed looked at me skeptically. "Sure."

"No, really!" I protested. "They do exist!"

"And then there's the internet," I sighed happily, laying my head back on the couch. "It's hard to explain, but it's like a big catalog with a bunch of different games and things you can visit, and you can literally talk to anyone on the planet!"

I didn't say what was really weighing on my mind; that where I'm from, my family actually exists. Great, way to be an optimist, Fiona. I stood up abruptly. "I'm going to go shower." I told the room in general, and then left to the bathroom. It's the only semi-private place in those rooms.

I looked at myself in the mirror for a second, then slapped myself. Get over it, I told myself sternly. Getting upset about something I can't help won't do anything for me. Don't cry. Not yet.

I stripped and stepped into the shower, letting the warm water run over me much longer then I should have. I estimate that I was in there for about 45 minutes. As soon as I was done, I changed and left. I once again walked right over to the bed and snuggled myself under the covers. Once again, the lights went out, Ed got in next to me, and fell asleep fairly fast. But I wasn't planning on staying there. I avoided Ed, careful not to disturb him, and climbed out the window again, getting up on the roof. I laid right in the middle and looked up at the stars. This is a good place to think, I decided.

Ed's POV

When I went to bed, I actually couldn't fall asleep. I was still thinking about the things that Fiona had told us about her reality. It was so spectacularly weird, that it was hard to believe. Especially the whole 'they don't have alchemy' thing. I can't imagine a world without alchemy!

Suddenly, felt Fiona shift as the weight on the bed suddenly changed. The window creaked open, and I felt Fiona jump up onto the windowsill.

I turned in time to see her foot leave the windowsill, and I stared up after her, wondering what she was doing. I threw on my undershirt and followed her up.

I found her lying on her back, looking up at the stars, apparently in deep thought. She didn't notice my presence until I sat down next to her. She started and looked over at me.

"I thought you were asleep," she said softly. "Sorry if I woke you up."

"No, it's okay," I replied. "I couldn't sleep." I laid down next to her. "Whatcha lookin' at?"

She pointed up at a group of stars. "I'm trying to find Orion. And… I… just… can't… FIND IT!" She sounded frustrated. I looked up at the stars as well.

"Hmm…" I muttered. "Well, I see the Big Dipper over there," I pointed towards a different constellation.

"Oh, you're right!" She exclaimed. She gave me a side-eyed look. "I didn't realize you knew any astronomy."

"Yeah, well." I looked back up at the stars. "I learned a lot of the different constellations when I was a kid."

"You know…" She poked my automail arm. "You never told me why you have automail."

I turned away. "Not in the mood."

She sighed and propped herself up on her elbow, looking at me critically. "Fine," she said. "I didn't want to play this card, but… Equivalent Exchange."

I snapped my head over to her, startled. "What's Equivalent Exchange got to do with this?"

"I told you at least part of my story," she stated. "You tell me part of yours. Equivalent Exchange, right?"

I didn't really want to say anything, but I felt compelled to. She was right, in a sense. I sat upright and looked up, determined not to look at her. I didn't want to see the pity that I knew was going to be in her eyes.

I told her the whole story; how I'd convinced Al to help bring mom back, and how it'd failed miserably. I explained to her the life we lead, and what sorts of things that happened to us.

"So," I finished, "now that you know what you're getting into, you probably don't want to be around us, do you?"

"No," she said slowly. "That's not it at all." I was startled to hear that her voice sounded heavy with sadness. Suddenly, without any warning, she leaned over and hugged me, pressing her face into my automail arm. She started crying. I started panicking. What do I do? I don't deal with crying girls at all!

"I'm sorry…" she choked out. "For all that you've been through."

I didn't know what to do, so I awkwardly hugged her back. "Is that why you're crying?" I said, laughing slightly. "It was a while ago; you don't need to go crying about it."

"Well, that's part of it," she sniffed, her voice muffled in my arm. "But I miss my home, Ed. I miss my family. My mom, my brothers. I miss it all. I even miss that stupid road trip I was on before I got drop-kicked into this place. I want…" She took a deep breath. "I want to go back."

Fiona's POV

This was extremely stupid. I shouldn't be crying in front of Ed. But I couldn't help it; hearing the story straight from his mouth had been incredibly tragic, and it reminded me of how much I wanted to be with my mom. There were more things that almost came out, so many I wants, but had I said all of those he would have been sitting there all night, and I wasn't going to do that to him.

I sat up after a couple minutes of crying, and Ed let go of me rather quickly. I could tell he was uncomfortable, which just made me feel worse.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

He snorted. "You need to stop apologizing."

"Shut up, Ed. I'm not in the mood for that right now."

"Sorry." He muttered.

"Now who's apologizing?"

"Oh, stuff it."

"Whatever. I'm too tired to argue." This isn't actually a lie; I was dead tired from all of this crying. I was also too tired to make a decent decision.

I leaned back against Ed's automail arm, and sighed. "Gods, I'm tired."

He looked down at me. "What the hell are you doing? Automail's not exactly a comfy thing to lay on." He grumbled.

"I know."

"And why do you say gods, instead of god? Are you Polytheistic?"

"Nope. I'm just a fan girl." I said happily. I could feel his head move down to look at me. "Of a book series…" I added on. "It's about the old Greek gods, and the general fandom has accepted the challenge of sayings Gods instead of God." (1)

"Huh. Your reality sure is weird."

"I think I get the right to say that about here, then. I mean, you have flipping alchemy! Come on!"

"Touché. So do you actually believe in God?" He asked me.

"Nope. I'm an atheist. Or I was, until I met Truth, and I don't really think he counts as a god, do you?" I replied.

I could feel myself slowly falling asleep, and I wasn't sure if I should just suck it up and get down back to the bed or be a lazy butt and stay there. I decided to be a lazy butt.

Ed's POV

Why is she leaning on my arm? I wondered. She sounded really tired, too. I'm not sure if I was hoping she'd fall asleep there or not.

But it wasn't my choice to decide. She slowly fell asleep, slipping down my arm until her head was on my leg. I looked down at her. Her hair was covering her face slightly, so that it flicked back and forth as she breathed softly. I carefully moved the hair off her face, and she shifted slightly, smiling in her sleep. She curled up into a little ball and slept on.

Gently, I picked her up bridal-style and made my way down the roof to the window. That was rather difficult, but her instincts seemed to kick in, because she grabbed onto my shirt in an effort not to fall. Or maybe not quite that. As she did so, her face squinched up, as though she was dreaming about something unpleasant. By the time I climbed in the window, though, she was smiling sweetly again. I put her in the bed, pulling the covers over her. She mumbled slightly in her sleep, and I leaned closer to hear what she was saying.

"Wasn't…expecting…this…" she was saying. What was she talking about? I climbed into the bed beside her.

The last conscious thought I can remember is Please don't let me hug her again in my sleep.

(A/N: 1): If you know what I'm referencing here, I'm very glad that you read. If you don't, go read Percy Jackson. All of it.

Yep... sooo... there goes another chapter.

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