Disclaimer:I own nothing of Fullmetal Alchemist and what not.

Thanks for Hurley's Belial for being my beta!

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The month Roy had given Lily to live—I mean to stay—in Raislen was coming to a close. That meant the search for anything on the little red stone we all know about had to stop and the two Elric brothers had to leave. In less then two days Lily, Mary, Leo, and even Tobias were heading back to Central. Lily had to pull some strings to get the train to let Tobias on. They could take dogs and cats easily but it was hard when dealing with a live fox, one that had a huge bite if you got him angry. Now it was time to say good-bye to the Elrics.

"I'm sad that you have to go, Edward, and that we couldn't find anything on the stone," Lily said.

The brothers were standing outside the door and Lily and her dark hair friend, Mary next to her.

Mary bent down to Ed's height. "You know, the offer to join the Roy Mustang Fan Club is still up, Eddy."

"For the last time...NO!" Ed yelled.

'One thing I don't have...The ability to say no to Mary...' Lily's mind sighed.

"Maybe we can start your own club, Edward. You are kind of cute, not Roy cute (Of course he is not cute, just damn sexy!), but cute enough for our younger members," Mary continued.

"Mary...Don't be a pedophile..." Lily warned.

Mary stuck out her tongue at the blond woman. Lily turned back to the boys.

"I hope you have more luck somewhere else on the stone. Hell, we'll probably see each other in Central," she said.

Reaching behind her, she pulled out a basket of fruit, some muffins, sandwiches, and a bottle of milk and handed it to the boys.

"A good-bye gift as well as a thank-you gift. Your visit gave me something to do."

"Thank you, Lily," Al said.

"Good luck, boys. Until next time."

She watched them turn and walk down the hill towards the village and closed the door when they were out of sight. She leaned on the door and sighed.

"Well, that was...entertaining..." Turning her head, she saw Mary looking through a dictionary. "What are you doing?"

"Looking up the meaning of 'pedophile'."

Lily smiled inwardly. "Yeah, good luck on that. I'm gonna freshen up and then go to town later on, all right?"

Mary waved her off as she continued to look in the giant book. Lily walked in her room first, going to gather new clothes for the day. Once again, she had slept in her clothes last night; she was too busy working over that little black book. She used many methods of trying to get it open, alchemical and regular. But not one of them could make the book budge. It seem to taunt her every time she looked at it, urging her to open it up and see what was written in it. It was like an obsession—an unhealthy one if she didn't watch out. The cover of it was most strange, with symbols all over it. She knew she had seen it before, but she forgot where. Grabbing a clean pair of jeans and a shirt, Lily walked into the bathroom for a shower. She just hoped the hot water could wash away the thoughts of the book before she went crazy over it.

---

Just in the center of Raislen, at the local ice cream shoppe, two strange figures sat across each other just by the window. One was talking in between bites of orange sherbet from a cup.

"I don't get it, Al. How come that Lily character can do alchemy without circles. I know I can, and so can Teacher, but her...There's something fishy about her."

"But Lily is a good person. Do you think she tried..." Al went into a low whisper. "...human transmutation?"

"I don't know." Ed took a big spoonful of the sweet treat. "She seems pretty healthy to me and she looks intact...She could've done it but it's hard to tell. One's thing for certain: I'm going to find out!" Ed exclaimed, taking a huge bite of sherbet and nearly falling out of his seat but the intensity of the huge brain freeze.

---

Lily shifted the heavy bag in her arms as she walked the streets of Raislen, heading back home. Accompany her was Tobias, walking by her feet, looking a few times at the bag in her arms. The bag was extremely heavy and hard to hold onto.

She sighed. "You're lucky, Tobias, to find someone like me. It's not like everyone would buy you five pounds of meat just for your food. We are both lucky that Mary's club is actually making enough money to help me feed you. Still surprising that she can make that much money since we have been in Central. It's probably because Roy went along with it. She's even making more money then me...And I have to go into work every day while she sits on her ass on the couch, enjoying what she does..."

Lily let out a small scream as she was pulled into a dark alley way and thrown onto the brick wall in there, causing her eyes to get out of focus before she shook her head to get it back together. When she did, she was surprised and then outraged at who she saw in front of her.

"Ed? You've got ten seconds to explain yourself as why you decided to get me in an old alley way. You're too young for that kind of thing..."

"Tell me...Tell me how you can perform alchemy without circles," he nearly growled out.

"I don't know why, it just happened, alright? I know I'm not the only one in the world; one of them is in front of me. Maybe it's a big step in the evolutionary chain or whatever. Are you happy? Can you let me go now?" she asked.

"No. Now, tell me truthfully: did you perform human transmutation?"

"What?"

"Who was it? An old friend? A lover? Viktor? What did you give up? An internal organ? A limb? Maybe a foot?" Ed rolled out the questions, not bothering giving her time to answer.

Lily started to yell. "I have no idea what you are talking about! I wouldn't dare use that forbidden practice! Now, let go of me!"

Once she placed her hands of the young Alchemist, several images flashed through her mind, too quick to remember every detail. Once the images vanished, she was back in the present. A foot from her was Ed, who seem to be spaced out for a split second before returning back to normal.

"I...I have to go..." she breathed.

Running out of the alley way, she saw Al just walking to the scene of the crime almost, picking up the packets of meats that laid on the ground. She took the bag of food from his arms. "Come on, Tobias!" she yelled to the young fox before turning and running the whole way to her home.

A moment later, Ed came out of the dark alley way, holding his head.

"Ed...? What happen to Miss Marshall?" Al asked.

"N-nothing. Let's get back to the hotel...I'm feeling...tired all of a sudden."

---

The next day, Lily groaned as she almost fell out of bed. All last night, she kept tossing and turning in her sleep. Her encounter with Ed was a strange one. Those images (they came again in her sleep) were very weird. It had a younger version of Ed, and an even younger boy she couldn't place. It was like living a different life. The weirdest one yet, was even too blurry to understand. All she remembered was standing in front of a large gray object, and then nothing.

She yawned as she stepped out her bedroom and into the living room. She saw Lucius and Mary on the couch, talking in hushed voices while looking over some papers in front of them on the coffee table.

"G'morning," she managed to get out.

"Oh, good morning, Lily. You look beat. Did you sleep well?" asked the redheaded man, Lucius.

"No...Didn't have a good sleep at all. "What are you guys doing?" she asked.

"Lucius and I are going over through some papers to make him the official President of the Roy Mustang Club in Raislen. I can't be in two places at once," Mary said.

"Uh huh." Lily was barely listening to her.

Lily plopped down on the couch what she saw thought was the couch. Instead she was now sitting in Lucius lap, wriggling around to get comfy. Mary smiled inwardly at she saw the look of Lucius face and pulled Lily by the arm, she was now sitting on the couch in between them.

"Now, Lily, if you keep doing that, I don't think Lucius could handle it. I think he likes guys now...and we shouldn't stop his way of life." Mary said as Lily laid her head on her friend's shoulder.

"Whatever." Lily yawned, trying to wake up, and turn towards Lucius. "I didn't know you liked Roy..."

"Actually, Leo got me into him," Lucius blushed. "After listening to him talk about Roy, I started to like him as well."

"I didn't know you knew Leo. Could that mean..."

Before Lily could finish her sentence, Mary jumped off from the couch, making Lily fall on the floor with a loud thud.

"You and Leo are a couple! I knew it! I was right!" she yelled.

"No, no, we are not a couple, Mary. Just friends with some..." he coughed the last part out.

"Excuse me?"

He leaned up and whispered it in her ear, causing a deep blush to appear on her pale skin.

"Oh, my...At least I was half right..." she breathed.

Turning back to the couch, she saw Lily picking herself up and rubbing her head where it hit the edge of the arm rest.

"Oh, sorry Lily, forgot you were there."

Lily was fully awake now and glared her friend, "Get ready to run, Miss Lucas...You're so dead!" she growled out.

Mary screamed as Lily got up from the couch and chased her around the house. Back in the living room, Lucius picked up a cup of coffee and sipped on it as he heard Lily apparently conquering Mary, judging by the loud thud from upstairs.

"Ow! Uncle! Uncle! For the love of Roy, get off of me!" Mary yelled.

"This means double chore duty! You're going to feed Tobias now!"
----

Finally, it was the last day of the month. It was time for everyone to leave and head back to Central. The four friends—two men and two women—stood on the platform, their bags already packed on the train, as well as Tobias. The two women and one of the men were saying good bye to the other man, the red head.

"It was nice to see you again, Lucius," Lily smiled.

"Likewise. I'll ask again: are you still cool about me not returning your feelings? I just want to rest easy tonight."

She giggled. "Yeah, no hard feelings. You're still a good friend and besides, I have a boyfriend back in Central that I really need to get to." She quickly hugged Lucius.

"Be safe thy young leader of the Roy army." Mary sounded serious as they both saluted each other.

Lily sighed and grabbed Mary's arm. "Come on, Mary, let's find our seats. Leo, we'll see you on board, right?"

Leo nodded. "Yeah, just have to say something to Lucius."

Lily smiled and took her female friend on the train and found a window seat. Both girls turned their heads, watching the scene with Leo and Lucius. They spoke briefly before Leo handed the redhead a slip of paper and kissed Lucius quickly the cheek, making his cheeks match his hair. They both giggled and stopped when Leo looked at them over his shoulder before boarding the train. Just as he sat down in his seat, Mary and Lily giggled softly together. He looked at them like they were freaks.

"What?"

"Nothing," Lily calmed down. "Let's go home."

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Author's Notes: I once again back from my trip but with a bad cold. Thankfully, I got this chapter done without long breaks in between. I hope you like this chapter and I also hope you will love the next one.