So this wasn't very long before but I was like well why not I mean I don't see much of a difference so let's DO THIS!

The date would end after they walked around the fountain because Ash was dying to know where the boys were at now. Al was feeling a bit anxious in telling her but he knew that he had to.

Just then Ash stopped Al watched as she fished through her pockets looking for something. She must have finally found it because her face lit up and she began to pull it out of her pocket; a penny?

"Al do you believe in God?"

Al was taken by surprise but then again what was new when he was with Ash.

"Well I can't say I do, though it would be nice but with all the things that have happened to brother in me I just don't see God in it…But I knew of a girl that did! Her name was Rose and she was a devout believer…"

Al remembered then he slouched,

"Though she was tricked in the end and brother proved the priest was a fake and destroyed half of the church…"

Ash smiled that would be something that would happen,

"Do you?"

Al transferred the question. Ash looked to the fountain,

"I suppose like you I've seen enough in this world that would make me disbelieve"

Ash thought back to all the things that she had been through and tried to find where God had been in all that,

"But I would like to believe that he does exist ya know? And that maybe everything will work out somehow"

Al also wanted to believe that, that someday they would get their bodies back and that their sins would be forgiven.

"They say that if you throw a penny in a fountain you get one wish"

Al watched her fiddle with the penny between her fingers. Her brow wrinkled and with a quick close of her eyes she flipped the penny and both of them watched the penny twirl in the air and drop loudly in the blue water.

"So your wish will come true now?"

Al asked, he watched as she stared at the penny that just fell,

"Well the saying is all a myth but I pray that if there's a God that it does"

Al wondered if he should ask or leave it alone seeing the sad expression that she had on her face. The date had cheered her up and they had been laughing earlier but it would seem that Al just couldn't keep the sorrow from creeping back into her eyes.

"What did you wish for?"

Ash looked at Al with for the first time with a smile of pure happiness,

"That we could stay together for a long time"

He watched unable to move as she tightened her pony tail and stretched out as if getting rid of any worries on her shoulders. Now he was positive he was definitely in love with her. When it had started he couldn't be sure but he was sure now, and it wasn't even a tender love. It was a love that wanted to capture her and never let go, to shelter her from the world so that she wouldn't get hurt and no one could take her away. It was a possessive kind of love and one he wasn't even sure he could handle. It threated to suffocate him because he knew that no matter what unless he got his body back he couldn't do anything. Not that he was fully sure what he planned to do with this love but he knew he wanted to do something.

"Now"

Ash said with a mischievous smile on her face,

"Where are my dear brothers?"

Al stepped back nervously.

Needless to say Ash was not happy that news of that coronal Mustang was moving to central and that Ed and her two brothers had been having a chat with said man. In fact she was so unhappy with the news she had 'accidentally' dropped a ridiculously strong laxatives in Ed's food which had kept him toilet bound for the past three days.

And maybe that was the way it was supposed to be because by the time he had finally exited the bathroom finally feeling relatively normal it would seem that the ex-employee, Sheska, had finished writing up all the notes,

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"

Ed yelled as he flipped through the pages of one of the books she had done. Ash sighed James and Chris also picked up a book to figure out what had set Ed off (not that it took much)

"It's a cookbook?"

Al asked in disbelief as he looked over Ed's shoulder. Ash frowned a cookbook meant recipes and ingredients, her original assumption had been right.

"Yep! That's all of Dr. Marcoh's notes!"

Sheska said proudly unaware of the unhappy mood or Ed's intense concentration,

"Wait a minute…. This is all code!"

Ed said and just like that the decoding began. Ed and Al including James and Chris all carried the books to the library in order to decode the information but just as James reached out excitedly for a book so that he could help-

"No way"

Ed's hand rest in front of James' face stopping him from taking one step closer,

"What why not?!"

Chris stepped up next to his brother,

"Look Ash may have said you were allowed to come and I appreciate you trying to help, I really do but who knows what we'll find there's no point in getting you involved in something dangerous"

Chris and James pouted if Ed was saying that it was getting more dangerous than Ash surely wouldn't allow them to help she had been really mad that they had gone behind her back to talk to Mustang three days ago. James sighed but Chris instead took a deep breath as he turned to the door about to go downstairs when Ash appeared in the doorway.

"You guys left one downstairs be careful you don't lose one of these books before you find out the truth"

She said as she placed the book on the table. Chris inhaled trying to gather as much courage as possible but it didn't seem to be working,

"A-Ash?"

Chris stuttered. She looked down at him and he felt his arms get weak and throat dry up,

"What is it Chris I don't have all day"

Chris didn't know how long he had just stood there and stared at her but he could see she was getting irritated and that wouldn't do if he was trying to ask her for a favor,

"We-We wanted to help Ed and Al but um we wanted to know if- if you know it was okay-okay with you?"

His voice raised on the last word and he felt stupid just asking, but James was right behind him pleading as well with his eyes,

"I see"

She said softly as she looked away and for a second Chris forgot what he had asked. James also watched her movements and knew that something was wrong, her eyes were distant as if she was thinking of something not at the present. He wondered if the thing that guy had said to her still bothered her and suddenly felt guilty for wanting her to bend to their will after all they had caused nothing but trouble since the beginning.

She turned back and picked the book that she had dropped off and flipped through the pages everyone waited on batted breath even the Elric's knowing that they couldn't say anything if she said it was okay,

"Even if I say yes you don't know how to do such research, you would be more of a nuisance than help."

Chris and James looked down knowing she was right,

"I'll have to teach you how to research effectively so that you can do it on your own, though that shouldn't take too long"

Chris and James looked up mouth gaping wide,

"Let's begin so that you can help the Elric's faster"

She smiled even Ed's mouth dropped seeing as Al didn't really have a mouth to drop. The only one who actually thought that there was something wrong was James as he sat on her left side to see what she was doing. Lately she seemed to be involving them when previously she would have surely said no. It was almost as if, though James didn't want to think that way, she was preparing them for if she wasn't there. But James shook that thought away because there should be no reason why she wouldn't be there.

"Are you listening James?"

James snapped out of his thoughts as he looked back at Ashley who along with Chris was staring at him,

"Ah sorry what were you saying?"