Be warned, this is gonna flip back and forth between Elizabeth's P.O.V. and Jean's P.O.V. I'm not writing out all of the (Jean/Elizabeth's POV) after the line breaks, but there will be line breaks between them. So every time there's a line, it's a new point of view:)

(Age 16)

I sighed as I sat on the bathroom floor, propped up against the door. I could hear everything that Edward and Alphonse were talking about: Me. I cringed as I heard Edward's disappointed sigh.

"Al," He said quietly to my little brother, "I always knew she would want something more than just us brothers, but now?" I heard Alphonse's metal creak a little, probably shifting to speak to Ed.

"I know it's hard to let her go, brother, but she's happy." He replied sadly.

Edward groaned in frustration before retorting, "He's too old for her. I looked up his file while we were waiting for Seska to finish copying Marcoh's book, and he's nineteen. That's three, almost four, years older than her!" He snapped furiously.

"Brot-" Alphonse tried to start in my defense, but Edward scoffed bitterly, cutting him off.

"And have you seen how he is with women? Sure, he can't keep them for long, but he gets around just fine." he remarked hurtfully. I carefully controlled my breathing so he couldn't hear my distress. I wasn't crying, but I was on the verge of it.

"Brother!" Alphonse cried disbelievingly. I couldn't believe how cruel he was being either.

Edward didn't even hesitate, but continued, saying, "And to kiss her in front of us? He's got guts, that's for sure. The next time I see him-"

"Brother!" Alphonse snapped angrily, his temper bursting at Edward's inconsideration for me. There was a slight pause before he asked, "Don't you know that she can hear everything you're saying?"

"Of course I do," He replied smugly, "I wanted her to hear every word of it."

"Fuck." I hissed in realization. "He's gonna kill me. He's gonna kill me and there's nothing else about it." I muttered, feeling like a school boy cowering in fear of his sweetheart's older brother.

The soft click of the military-issue shoes approached the pub table where I was sitting with a very strong alcoholic drink in hand. The one woman I never expected to seek me out sat across from me, giving me her usual, emotionless stare.

Riza sighed at me, dropping her mask and looking at me with pity. "FullMetal won't kill you." She tried to reassure, "That would get him kicked out of the military and they'd never find the stone."

I chuckled nervously, "So he would, but only if he could not get caught? Damn Hawkeye, you sure know how to make a man feel better."

"I wouldn't let any of the Elrics hear you say that, Havoc." Roy commented from behind me, chucking. I whipped around to see his smug smirk and his hands so casually in his pockets.

I groaned, "Thanks for reminding me, at least bring flowers to my grave, alright?" I replied in all seriousness. Edward is gonna kill me. probably slowly and painfully. At least Alphonse won't help- I think.

Mustang took a seat next to Hawkeye, where everyone knew he was most comfortable, and adamantly shook his head. "If FullMetal did go and kill you, there would be no way in hell I'd get caught near you grave. He might think I supported your," Mustang jested, pausing to raise a questioning eyebrow, "relationship?"

I scoffed, catching his double meaning, "We kissed twice. This first time she was surprised, the second time we got caught. I highly doubt she'll go against her brothers to spend any more time with me. That, Colonel," I replied sadly, taking my first, long swig of whiskey. I burned my throat horribly, but that soon washed out by a dull numbness as I continued speaking, "Does not equate to a relationship, much less a relationship worth fighting for."

"Get me a map, Brosh!" Edward snapped, still irritated with me. The major had appeared and offered, more like forced, his condolences to Edward and Alphonse. Thank God I was in the bathroom. However, his rant about the cruel truth got Edward's mind spinning and he asked for a map.

That's where I came in. Well, partially. I stood in the room with them, but on the opposite side of it. I couldn't get too close to Edward, as he was either too angry or too cold towards me. Nonetheless, I silently approached the small group they had formed, sticking to the outskirts of it.

"Well," Armstrong began, taking the map from the freshly returned Brosh and smoothing it out on our coffee table, "There are currently four alchemic research labs being used in Central." He pointed to one of the four, which were arranged in a partial circle, "Of them, the Third Laboratory is most suspicious, as that is where Dr. Marcoh worked."

Edward let out a soft 'hm', signaling that he was deep in thought. I leaned over the map to get a better look at it, finding the missing part of the circle peculiar. "We toured the labs after our exam and nothing seemed sketchy about them then..." He trailed off, still mentally deciphering the details.

Finally finding a building that could fit in the circle perfectly, with the correct gap and all, I cleared my throat to get their attention before pointing to it and saying, "What about this one?"

I felt a chilling stare as Edward's resenting gaze landed on me. Before he could comment, however, Maria responded to my question with her nose in her notes, "It used to be the 5th Laboratory, but due to its unstable foundations and risk of collapsing, it's now just an old, unused building. Entrance is prohibited due to it's state."

Something caught Ed's eye, making him say, "That's the one. That's where the research is being done." All eyes turned to him as he continued, "There's a prison right next to it," He pointed to the adjacent building, "I bet they used prisoners from death row for test subjects."

An ominous silence began to slowly settle over our group. The silence made us all uncomfortable, but Denny couldn't take it. He made a noise of obvious unease which shattered the fragile absence of noise.

"Forget her!" I scolded myself, a bit tipsy. I had gone off to the little pub I met Elizabeth at when she was pissed at me. Not the best place for trying to forget her in hopes of getting off of Edward's 'to-kill' list, but it did have the strongest liquor.

I knew that what I was doing in this stuffy pub was gonna come and bite me in the ass eventually, but I didn't care. Maybe I'd had too much to drink, maybe I was too scared of her brothers. Who in their right mind wouldn't be? The eldest had managed to transmute a soul that took away his entire arm, while suffering from blood loss of his leg! And he wasn't even a teenager yet! Then the other one, a soul attached to a suit of armor, he couldn't feel anything! He could fight forever if he wanted! Damn straight I was scared of them.

"Uhm, Jean, right?" A sweet voice with a southern accent called. I looked up to see Melanie, the waitress here. Only she wasn't in her waitress uniform. I smiled a bit lopsidedly at her.

"Yeah, how come you're not in your skirt and apron?" I asked rudely, noting her casual appearance. Her hair looked like something was different too, but I couldn't place it.

She giggle at me, probably because of how the alcohol made me so frank, and explained, "I'm off work. I was actually about to head to my place..." She smiled coyly, cocking her head to the side. I knew exactly what she was inviting.

"I could walk you there." I replied with a smirk, standing. My half-empty drink faced my unoccupied coat which I had left abandoned on the chair.

"Edward! Wait!" I called in a whispered shout. We had climbed out the window and were making our way to the fifth lab right now. Only Ed and Al seemed to have rockets strapped to their backs and wouldn't slow down for me. Was he still mad? Who am I kidding, he was still pissed, but probably not for the reason he was saying. Sure, he didn't like me and Havoc, but I knew he'd get over it. What angered him the most was that he had to find us. I didn't tell him about Jean like I told him about everything else. He's upset that I've been changing.

The dark sky kept us hidden during the long walk. I almost lost them a few times, but I managed to remain hot on their trail all the way until we reached the crumbling stone walls of the laboratory.

Edward and Alphonse ducked to the side to avoid being seen by the guard at the gate. He stood armed the the right of the gate in the only slice of light on this stretch of sidewalk. Once I followed in suit and was completely out of his range of vision, I heard Edward scoff and say, "Hah, a guard at an abandoned building? Doesn't anyone double check stories these days?"

I sighed, only barely able to keep my mind off of the possibilities of Jean and I. Maybe one day we could actually date, after Al gets his body back and Ed and I restore our limbs.

"How do we get in?" Al mumbled to Ed, the two of them having one of their moments where they forget about me to solve a problem. I heard all of their words, but my eyes and mind were tracing two figures walking down the sidewalk across the street from us.

"Make one?" Ed whispered back, suggesting a transmutation. As the couple neared, I could clearly make out their heights and that the shorter one, a woman with long, curly hair, was hanging on the taller one, a man. I couldn't see their faces because of the dark, only their silhouettes.

"No," Al replied, still in his hushed tone, "The guard would see the light from the transmutation." When they finally came close enough, my jaw dropped at the man's face. There with the waitress from the pub was Jean with a carefree grin on his face. He was walking her somewhere, and by the way she was looking at him, he was taking her to her place.

"Then I guess the only way to do this is to go over." I interrupted quietly, more than a bit deflated. Edward sent a stubborn glare my way, but froze. Once his eyes softened, I forced myself to swallow the lump in my throat. Now he'd seen Jean and the waitress, too.

Al gave me the courtesy of not letting me know he had seen them together. Instead, he lowered himself to one knee and linked his armor's fingers together to toss me up over the wall. I gently placed a foot in the step created, forgetting that Al was made of armor and that my little brother didn't require a gentle touch any more.

He jerked his arms up in one swift movement and I was sent flying. Than God he had a good aim, or the barbed wire fence on top would have really hurt. I landed just before the wire, where there was only about a one-foot gap for me to safely land. Turning around to lower some wire down to Al, I was surprised when Ed was also sent flying, landing about five or six feet to my left.

Our movement had caught Jean's attention, causing him to stare curiously at us. He was probably trying to figure out what was going on. I couldn't do anything but watch as he continued walking with his date.

"My house is this way, Johnny," Melanie cooed, tugging on my arm and changing my 'john' sounding name to 'johnny', "I wanna get back to my place to have some fun." she added suggestively.

I wasn't giving her my undivided attention like I had been previously, however, as I noticed some figures hanging out by an abandoned building. I had sobered up a bit on the walk from the pub, but I still wasn't thinking very clearly. I watched in passing as the tallest one knelt down an tossed a girl up onto the wall. Blinking, I realized that the girl was Elizabeth.

Suddenly curious, I slowed down my pace drastically to try and figure out what was going on and how it involved Beth.

The tall figure, it had to be Alphonse, tossed up the other boy, Edward as well. Beth had been unwrapping the wire on top of the wall, but she froze when she saw me. She looked really hurt, and I was reminded of the girl on my arm.

Edward, on the other hand, was visibly pissed. I could feel his glare even after I looked away. I wanted to kick myself for being seen. Sure, kissing his sister was a dumbass move. Being seen by her with another woman on my arm was even worse. But the stupidest thing I've ever done was to get caught with a woman on my arm by the twins. I knew my fate:

Edward Elric is going to kill me.

So, I meant to have this up yesterday, but my sister-in-law had her baby shower that day. I could have gotten it finished (As I was expecting the shower and still had time later that night) but my little niece decided that she just couldn't wait! So (10 days early) she came on the same day as her baby shower!

And so, my beautiful little 1-day old niece postponed this chapter. But, in consolation, I'll have y'all know that her name is:

Annabelle Elizabeth;D