Note: Hey, guys! I'm so sorry for the wait! I had a bad case of writer's block and then I got sick and, well... life happened.


"Hey," Edward greets her, but he can't quite meet her eyes.

Noah feels lightheaded. He came. Why is he here?

She wants to reach out, take his hand in hers, and never let him go.

"Ed!" Startled by her own outburst, Noah freezes. She didn't think she would sound that… thrilled.

Her palms feel sweaty and she rubs them discreetly against her skirt. Against her will, she wonders if Edward notices the motion and a flood of heat warms her cheeks.

"You came," Noah says softly, praying that her voice doesn't quiver the way the rest of her does. Her heart pounds in her chest.

He came for her. He waited for her.

Maybe he can be hers after all.

She wonders why he came. Why now?

There's a flutter in her stomach.

"Yeah." Ed's eyes slide over to her and it isn't much but it's a change from how he was before. "Winry was worried."

"Oh." Her shoulders drop and she walks past him.

Ed keeps pace beside her.

"Is that the only reason you came? Because Winry was worried?"

He didn't care enough to come on his own? Was that how little he thought of her?

Ed jams his hands into his pockets and glares straight ahead. "You left without saying a word to anyone. "

Noah stops, one hand resting lightly on the white picket fence by the side of the road. The sun is setting and it leaves the sky in a haze of pinks and yellows. It's so different from her world, with all its muted colors.

"You had guests," she says, like that should explain everything away.

She won't look at him, but her heart beat hard against her chest like a pulsing wound. She presses a hand to her breastbone, feeling as though her ribs would burst.

It's suddenly so hard for her to breathe.

She needs him. Can't he see that? She needs him. She's needed him from the first moment she laid eyes on him.

There's nothing else for her outside of him.

Even this world.

She has nothing here- nothing but him.

And Winry won't let her have even that.

Her vision swims, but she doesn't lift a hand to wipe away the unshed tears.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

He was supposed to be her happy ending.

She thinks about Winry, about how if she were her, Ed would be at her side to hold her close. He won't do that for her. He'll never do that for her.

Because of her.

If Winry were gone, it would all become so easy.

If he would just forget…

Impulsively, Noah spins around. Ed is facing the sunset. His hands are tucked deep in his pockets and he's chewing his bottom lip.

There's a serenity to the picture he paints and it stokes a tingling in Noah's fingertips.

She's overwhelmed by the desire to reach out and touch him. To pull him close and hold him near to her.

For him to the same to her.

"Edward…" She steps forward.

Ed turns. There's an openness on his face that she hasn't seen there in a long time.

She lunges forward.

Comprehension barely registers on his face, before she grasps ahold of his wrist and closes her eyes in concentration.

Ed's emotions hit her like a brick.

Confusion. Shock.

Anger.

It's work- real work- to push them all to the back of her mind and focus on her objective.

He could love me if I could just… if I could just show him that he could.

She grasps a little tighter.

"Ed…" she whispers. Please, she thinks and a flurry of disjointed thoughts follow it. Please see me. That's not too much to ask, is it? Why can't you want me? Can't you see I love you?

She tries to focus- but she isn't sure what she should be focusing on. She's never attempted anything like this with her power before. Will it even work?
And then Ed's hand is yanked from her grasp.

Noah gives a small gasp, eyes flying open.

"What were you trying to do, Noah?" Ed asks. His lips are flattened against his teeth, nostrils flaring.

He is, Noah realizes, more than just a little furious.

She stumbles back, clutching a hand to her chest. "Ed, please, I… I didn't mean…" she struggles to find words that will excuse the inexcusable and finds herself falling short. "I just…"

Ed turns away from her, fists clenched down by his side.

"Stop," he says and she does. His voice is tight and heavy with emotion. "Just stop." He raises his eyes to the sunset, expression hard. "I need to go on alone."

Noah's breath hitches, her cheeks burning.

He spares her a sideways glance.

"You're welcome to come back," he says quietly, but his tone doesn't lose its edge, "but if you try to look inside my mind again, then maybe it's for the best if you find somewhere else to live."

Noah stands frozen as a heaviness settles in her chest. He can't possibly mean that, can he? Where else is she supposed to go?

"Edward…" Her voice comes out half-strangled as she calls out to him.

"Don't, Noah."

He doesn't stop walking. He doesn't look back.


Ed leaves her standing in the middle of the road.

She calls out to him, but he isn't ready to hear it.

He doesn't want to hear her reasonings or her excuses.

All he can think about is what she just did. Why? What did she have to gain from it? What was she looking for?

Noah has read his mind before, only once that he knows of, back in her world when they first met.

But that had been with his consent- even if he hadn't fully grasped the full extent of her… powers. Still doesn't, if he's being honest.

What had just happened hadn't been with his consent, however. He can't help but feel violated.

What had she taken? There's no way for him to search his memories and know what exactly has been touched. What hasn't been looked at.

He brings a hand to his forehead with a small groan. He wants to reach in, thrust fingers through bone and brain and scrub his mind clean from any and all traces of tampering.

Those memories- Al's smile, his mother's touch, Winry's laugh- they're his.

His memories of the day they tried to transmute their mother, his blood mingled with the screams of both him and his brother- not even Winry knows the full truth of that day.

Ed feels physically ill. He stumbles next to the road and dry heaves, stooped over, hands on his knees.

He straightens, wiping his mouth, and very deliberately takes the right that veers away from home.

He isn't ready to face any of them yet. He needs to give himself time to let his anger simmer down.

If Noah arrives back at the Rockbell home before he does, well, maybe she'll have some backbone and confess to what she did.

Ed's lips thin. He tucks his hands into his pockets and keeps walking.


Note: I hope I got Ed's reaction right- that was something giving me trouble. And, honestly, at first, I wanted Noah to impulsively kiss him, but she's already been wondering about other ways to use her powers so this worked.

Something I thought worth mentioning: I absolutely love the comments I have gotten for this story. I love how thoughtful they have been and I love that people aren't afraid to comment if they disagree with my portrayal.

However, while I think that it's great that some people sympathize with Noah, I'd like to remind people that her only faults aren't just betraying Ed and committing what was essentially a mind-rape on a drugged out teen.

She sold out an entire nation (and her own people) to a group of genocidal maniacs. That deal she made would have only benefited herself. Not only that, but, with her powers and having read both Edward's and at least a couple of the Thule Society's members' thoughts, she would have known. It doesn't matter if she was oppressed, that was not okay. This something that the movie did absolutely nothing to address.

We don't know if she feels any remorse. We don't know if she even fully grasps how terrible what she did was.

That's even less okay.

Instead, the movie goes from, "Oh well, who cares as long as you get your Shamballa!" to "No worries, it all worked out in the end!"

That's not just a terrible redemption arc. That's a terrible character.

I'm sorry for that, but I just wanted to explain my position a bit more.