I do not own the Fullmetal Alchemist

Half-past one in the morning was never a good time to wake up anyone. It was especially a bad time to wake up Edward Elric, since it never meant he was going to be too pleased about it. Even if he didn't run into a murderer for the day. Yet.

'Yes?' Al opened the door, expecting to either find intruders or the military, instead, a hauntingly familiar figure stood in front of him. 'Nina?' he gasped. 'What're you-how did you get here? I thought-never mind, come inside.'

Al quickly ushered the half-girl-half-dog creature inside his and Ed's dormitory. Inside, Ed was dead asleep in his usual black clothes, his limbs flung over the bed and twitching around like he was having a nightmare.

Al closed the open window silently, blocking out the sky dull with pouring clouds. He didn't need anyone eavesdropping on them especially with Nina there. Nina walked inside and stared around curiously, her strange eyes lit up at the sight of Ed sleeping.

Al turned around to see Nina putting her front paws on Ed's bed. 'Uh, Nina,' he called. 'Maybe you shouldn't...'

Ed 's eyes flickered open to see Nina licking his face. His eyes widened in surprise and horror as he sat up, panting as if waking up from a nightmare, which he probably thought was the case.

'Big brother,' Nina croaked happily. 'Big brother Ed!'

'W-what's going on?' Ed looked up at Al. Al saw fresh tears bloom in his eyes. 'Al, is that-'

'It's Nina,' he confirmed grimly. He crouched down to pull Nina away from excitedly greeting Ed with her tongue, resulting in her licking his armour instead. 'I don't know how she got here, but she just turned up in front of the door.' Al stroked Nina's back gently so she stopped licking him. 'Nina, how did you get here?'

Nina grinned, making the brothers flinch. 'Big man,' she croaked in her warped voice. 'Bad man came, touched Daddy's head.' Her voice lowered to a mournful tone. 'Big man hurt Daddy. Daddy bleeding. Daddy hurting.'

Ed and Al stared at her with horrified looks on their faces. Ed quietly swung his legs over the bed and kneeled down to Nina's level. 'What bad man?' he asked. Oh god, he thought. Tucker is dead? I thought he was guarded by the military.

'Brother,' Al whispered. 'Is Tucker really-?'

'Shh,' Ed interrupted. They didn't need to discuss that now. He turned back to Nina. 'Nina, can you tell us what happened?'

Nina's disfigured body trembled as she spoke, 'Bite bad man. Bad man leg. Ran away. Where is bad man?'

Al looked at the closed window cautiously before saying, 'He's not here, Nina, you're safe here. Can you tell us what he looked like?'

'Yellow coat. Dark glasses. Big man.'

'Okay, we got that.' Ed mentally stored away the information. A yellow coat and dark glasses-that must be sunglasses. I don't know anyone who looks like that. Or how he got past the guards and killed Tucker. 'So you came all the way here by yourself? How?'

Nina sniffed the air before croaking, 'Big brothers. Smell metal. Smell sweat.'

'So you followed our scent,' Ed murmured, 'And you found us here.'

Nina nodded. Her eyes began to moisten in fear as footsteps echoed from outside the dorm. The brothers froze and waited until the footsteps quietened.

'Bad man,' Nina whispered. 'Bad man wants to hurt me.'

Ed's eyes teared up with determination and sadness. 'We won't let him hurt you, Nina,' he promised and pulled the chimera girl close to him. 'We're not going to let anyone else hurt you again.'

Al watched sadly as his older brother began crying, the dread and horror from the day before when they'd found Nina finally catching up to him as well as the guilt and relief that she was there, horribly transmuted but otherwise still alive. Nina licked up the salty tears that rolled down Ed's face and dropped down on her short white fur.

Al wondered whether Nina and Alexander were going to be fine in the end, if Ed and him found some way to separate them. He doubted they could, and even if they could it wasn't like Nina would be able to live a normal life with her parents gone and her father's horrible doing to her and her late mother.

'Fullmetal? Are you awake? Why is there blood in front of your room?'

The three froze as the door swung open to reveal the Colonel and the Lieutenant.

Thanks for reading!