DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. I only own my own OCs and this fic.

Five

Since Winry wasn't going to be using her bed any time soon, she let Delilah sleep in her room rather than have the girl sleep in the patient beds with the Major and the Elric brothers. The mechanic took enough time after dinner to lead the young girl to the bedroom and point out what wasn't okay to touch (the metal bits on the desk) and what was (the books on the shelf, except for the ones in the top row). Then, Winry left to return to making Ed's arm.

In all honesty, Winry's room wasn't much, but Delilah was impressed, as she had never had her own room before. Marcoh's home had been tiny and cheap, with one room serving as everything but the bathroom. Such arrangements had worked out for so long because they were usually making house calls.

After changing into a nightdress, Delilah inspected the books on the shelves. Most were on automail and engineering in general, but there were a few cheesy, girly books as well. She pulled out A Brief Introduction to Automail and sat on Winry's bed. The book wasn't very thick, and there were many diagrams and pictures, so she managed to read all of its contents after a few hours. When she was finished, the clock on the wall told her that it was nearly midnight. Though she wanted to read a more in-depth book, she knew that getting her sleep would probably be the best thing to do.

Once she had taken her medicine, Delilah turned off the light and lay down in the bed, staring up at the ceiling. But even with the help of her medicine, her mind raced with all of the information she had just absorbed—or, at least, tried to absorb. Before she fell asleep, she even had the time to wonder about how Marcoh was doing, where Den was, what Pinako might make for breakfast, and how much Ed might complain tomorrow about not being able to do anything fun while Winry was working on his masterpiece of an arm.

Her dreams were once again filled with nothing, but when she awoke, her mind was on automail again—most specifically, she was thinking about the correlations between actual human anatomy and the mechanical prosthetics. However, she was also thinking about the fact that her stomach was just about empty.

She sat up and yawned, looking at the clock to discover that she was hungry for good reason—it was nearly lunchtime. She had missed breakfast.

After dressing in another plain dress (this one identical to the one she had worn yesterday, only pastel blue), she retreated to the upstairs bathroom to relieve herself and make herself presentable. She herself didn't mind how she looked, but several of the women back home had looked at her oddly if she didn't brush her hair out.

Actually, they always looked at her oddly, but she tried not to think about it much.

Pinako was already preparing lunch when Delilah came into the kitchen.

"Well, good morning, sleepyhead. Took you a while to get up."

"Sorry. Someone usually has to wake me up if I have somewhere to be. Do you need help?" she asked quietly.

Pinako accepted the offer and pointed to where the dishes were kept, instructing Delilah to set the table. "I came up to get you for breakfast, but you didn't move a muscle. Did you stay up late?"

"I was reading a book on automail. It was an introductory novel."

"Oh? Did you find it interesting?" Pinako asked, turning off the stovetop and pouring the contents of the cooking pot into a large bowl.

"Not as interesting as the books I have read on human health, but I read the entire book. Though most of it was on maintenance and how automail relates to human anatomy." Delilah finished placing the silverware on the table, and Pinako ladled some stew into a bowl.

"Mind taking that up to Winry while I get the boys?" Pinako asked.

"Okay." Delilah took the bowl and a spoon, heading up the stairs to Winry's workroom. When she opened the door, she found the blonde girl sitting at her workbench…sleeping.

Delilah placed the bowl of stew beside Winry and put a hand on the girl's shoulder, shaking her slightly. "Winry?"

After a moment, Winry opened her eyes and noticed that she still had an unfinished arm in front of her. She jumped in her seat. "W-what time is it?" she gasped out.

"Nearly noon. Pinako had me bring you lunch."

"O-oh. Thanks." Winry spooned some food into her mouth before she basically attacked the mechanical arm in front of her. Nearly immediately, she seemed to completely forget that Delilah was there, and the young girl watched her with interest before her stomach growled once more, reminding her that lunch was downstairs. Without a word, she left.

"Hey there, Delilah," Alphonse greeted when she came into the kitchen. The Major had placed him at one end of the table, and Ed sat beside him, already halfway finished with his meal. Pinako and the Major were eating at a more leisurely pace.

"Hello," Delilah replied softly, sitting across from Ed at Al's other side and starting to eat.

Ed looked up from his food. "I see you're finally up," he said, his tone coming out a bit harsher than he intended, but Delilah didn't notice, as she was too busy eating.

"Brother! At least sound a little nicer."

"What? She's fine!"

Delilah ignored their little squabble and studied the old cracks in the table as she ate. Once or twice she realized that she was focusing more on the table than her food, and she forced herself to eat faster than her snail's pace. When she was full, she put down her spoon. Incidentally, she finished just after Edward.

The Fullmetal Alchemist eyed her bowl. "You gonna eat that?"

"Brother!" Al scolded. He looked over at Delilah. "There's still nearly half left. Aren't you going to finish?"

Delilah shook her head. "I am finished. I do not eat much."

"But you're tiny and skinny!" Alphonse argued. "Don't you want to grow?"

She shrugged slightly. "But I am full," she said truthfully. She looked toward Edward's direction. "Go ahead."

Without further ado, Edward dug into the remnants of her meal, and Alphonse rolled his red eyes at his brother's actions before he turned to Delilah once more. "You slept though breakfast, though. Shouldn't you be hungry?"

"I was, but not anymore," she answered simply. "Is Den outside?"

Alphonse shifted at the sudden topic change. "I…think so, yeah."

"Is it hot outside?"

Ed answered this time, with a nod, as his mouth was full.

Delilah left the table without another word and hurried up to Winry's room to grab her hat before she went outside, not bothering to put on her shoes. Someone called to her as she left, but she didn't catch the words.

"Den," she called softly, but there was no answer. She searched the perimeter of the house like she had yesterday, but the only sign of the dog was a set of paw prints on the dirt road. Delilah stared at the tracks for a moment, debating if they were fresh or not—she had no way of knowing. Nevertheless, she decided to follow them.

Small things distracted her on her walk. For one, she was grateful for her hat, as it was incredibly hot. The smell of the grasses on the plains was pleasant, and she found herself trying to identify the wildflowers that she saw. Several long minutes passed before anything of interest happened.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

Delilah heard the words but didn't register them. It was only when a hand rested on her shoulder that she stopped and looked at the person who was talking to her. "Oh. Hello, Edward."

"Marcoh was right; you do wander," the Fullmetal Alchemist noted. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for Den. I am following his tracks." She pointed out the paw prints in the dirt.

Ed suddenly laughed. "Those are from yesterday! Den's back home. We tried to tell you, but you didn't hear us. Let's head back."

As Delilah walked beside him, she recalled something Alphonse had told her yesterday. "You visited your mother's grave, right?"

Edward nodded, becoming serious. "Yeah. I guess you remember what I said about trying to bring her back?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes."

Edward didn't say anything until they were within sight of the Rockbell residence. "We did a stupid thing, Delilah. Don't ever even think of it."

"Of course."

Alphonse was waiting for them, leaning up against a barrel once more. "We were worried you got lost, Delilah. Where'd you go?"

Edward scoffed. "You can't get lost out here, you can see for miles. And she nearly made it all the way there."

Delilah was intrigued by the stress of the word, but she said nothing.

"Oh." Alphonse looked toward her once more. "I tried to tell you Den was actually in the house, but you already left."

"I am fine, Alphonse. The walk was nice." She suddenly tipped her head to the side, recalling something she had meant to ask them. "The Philosopher's Stone is supposed to bypass Equivalent Exchange, right?"

The sudden topic change caught both boys off-guard; this part of her…personality was difficult to get used to. "Well, yeah," Ed said. "At least, it's rumored to."

"We met a priest in Liore who used a fake Stone, like the one Marcoh had, and he was able to make things out of very little," Al added.

Delilah put a finger on her chin. "I do not understand how alchemy's greatest legend can bypass its most basic law…. What happened to that Stone?"

"It broke," Ed answered, remembering the despair he had felt at the false lead.

"Marcoh said imperfect Stones can break at any time," Alphonse pointed out.

"It must have broken because it used up its power for Equivalent Exchange," Delilah said softly. "It explains why they all wear out."

Edward considered her words. "That makes sense, but we don't know if a perfect Stone is bound by Equivalent Exchange or not."

"One cannot create something out of nothing, so what goes into the Stone must be powerful," Delilah thought aloud. "And then that power is used for Equivalent Exchange…."

"So you're saying that even if we figure out what goes into it, it'll take a lot of time to get all the ingredients?" Alphonse asked.

"Not only that, but the items might be rare," Ed summed up. "But if Marcoh was able to make even imperfect ones, we should be able to, too. While all this thinking is great, we won't be able to figure anything out until we see Marcoh's research."

()()()()()

The rest of the day, and the next, passed by without incident. Life felt very slow in Resembool, even to Delilah. After all, she was used to making house calls with Marcoh, and the closest thing to a medical emergency was when Ed stubbed his toes and swore that he had broken them (an exaggeration, needless to say).

Delilah passed the time by reading more of Winry's books. Since she wasn't familiar with automail, she wasn't able to absorb the information very well, but she took note of the chapters on daily maintenance, like oiling the joins so the metal didn't rust, squeak or wear down. She remembered how Al would squeak sometimes when he moved, and she wondered if the boys were taking care of themselves as well as they should.

Finally, on the third day, Ed was tempted to barge into Winry's workroom and demand she give him his arm, but Alphonse convinced him not to by warning him that Winry had many wrenches at her disposal. This led Ed to mope around outside, waiting impatiently.

The three teenagers waited in the yard, the brothers sitting against the house while Delilah tried to get Den to play with her. The dog at first had been delighted by the near-constant attention during the day, but after three days he had grown exasperated with her, and he would run away from her. Unfortunately for him, Delilah thought this was a game.

"Ed!" Winry called, rushing outside and holding up an automail arm. The eldest Elric needed no further invitation to rush inside the house. As he left, he instructed Delilah to go find the Major and help him gather all of Al's parts.

Delilah forgot about Den for a moment (much to the dog's relief). She had wanted to watch Edward's limbs be reattached to his body, but she decided to do what Ed had asked. She easily found the Major, and while he went and grabbed Alphonse's crate, Delilah found a large tablecloth in the kitchen and came back outside to spread it out near Alphonse. Carefully, the Major dumped the contents of the crate onto the sheet and then moved Al onto the sheet as well.

"Soon I'll be good as new," Al joked.

Delilah knelt down beside the pile of what used to be Alphonse's side. She touched one of the pieces. "What happened to you and Edward?" she asked. Though she sounded distant like she always did, she was very concerned and wished that she had asked sooner.

The Major was silent, and Alphonse hesitated. "…Ed and I get into a lot of fights," was all he said.

At that moment, Edward came rushing out of the house, now fully-limbed. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Al!" he cried, skidding to a stop in front of his brother. "Do we have everything?"

"Yup!" Al replied cheerily, seeming to have put the earlier conversation behind him. "The MPs in East City got them all for me."

"You can fix him now?" the Major asked curiously.

"Yeah, but it's tricky," Ed replied. Carefully, he pulled off Al's helmet. "See that rune right there, on the inside? That's what binds his soul to the armor. If I break that, Al's a goner."

Delilah peered closely at the rune. "It is written in blood," she noted.

"Yup, my blood," Edward replied. Delilah wasn't fazed, but the Major seemed to be thrown for a loop by this.

Ed laughed. "That was a close call, wasn't it Al?"

Alphonse chuckled. "Just a little deeper and it would be all over for me!"

Edward grinned and didn't waste any more time. He clapped his hands and placed them on Al's body, and with a flash of light, Al was whole again.

"Finally!" Alphonse rose to his feet and moved around. "It was so boring not being able to do anything."

Delilah inspected Alphonse's right arm. "You did this all without a transmutation circle…," she whispered, awed.

"It's Brother's special trick," Alphonse explained teasingly.

"You say that like I'm a dog or something," Edward muttered. "C'mon Al, let's spar already."

()()()()()

Delilah spent the rest of the afternoon watching the brothers practice their sparring (the Major also joined in on the brothers' fun, throwing off his shirt and chasing after the boys). Delilah had never seen anyone fight like this before—it was graceful, in a way. Part of her imagined that they were dancing. Edward's style included a bit more jumping, probably due to the fact that he was much lighter than Alphonse. But since Alphonse couldn't take damage or get tired, he held off Edward incredibly well. For a bulky suit of armor, Alphonse was fantastic.

Dinner went by in a blur of laughter and delicious food. Al fed Den (with Delilah trying to sneak scraps to him as well), Edward and Pinako argued about who was shorter, Winry chided Edward about his (lack of) automail maintenance, and Edward ignored her and proclaimed that he was going to take the first train out to Central in the morning, no matter how early it was.

Once dinner was finished, Delilah offered to take Den outside so the dog could take care of his business. She stood outside for a few minutes, waiting for Den and admiring the purple tint in the sky, noticing the stars blinking into existence. She remembered reading about how it was harder to see the stars in Central since there were so many more lights from houses, and she realized that she felt sad about leaving Resembool. Though life was slow here and there wasn't much to do but read and play with Den (her favorite part), Delilah had felt…different here. A good sort of different. She didn't know how to describe it.

Once Den was finished with his business, Delilah went back into the house with the dog, and he went off into the kitchen to try and find more food. Delilah heard voices coming from the living room, so she headed that way, but when she got to the door she found the Major standing outside it. He raised a finger to his lips, so Delilah stood still and listened.

Pinako was speaking. "…you guys know better than anyone what it feels like to have a home and then lose it."

"Yup," Alphonse agreed. "That's why I appreciate how you and Winry always welcome us back like we're your real family. Brother does too, even though he doesn't say it." He paused. "At the same time, the reality is that we no longer have the house we were born and raised in. We don't regret burning our house down, but sometimes…we feel this overwhelming sadness.

"Maybe we could get over it if we just had a good cry." He laughed, but his voice sounded hollow, and not just because of his iron body, even though his next words sounded lighthearted—but forced. "But with this body I can't even cry if I wanted to."

"And then there's that idiot who has a body that can cry but won't," Winry commented, and Delilah knew she was talking about Edward. "That idiot really tries so hard to be tough…."

Beside Delilah, the Major wiped away tears with a handkerchief before he quietly guided Delilah away from the door so they wouldn't be found.

Delilah's mind raced with the information. Ed and Al had burned their house down? When? After they had performed human transmutation, no doubt, but why? And earlier, when Edward had said that she had almost made it "there," had he meant the remains of their house? It seemed plausible….

The Major bade her goodnight and left for the patient rooms, leaving Delilah standing there for a moment. The thought of sleeping was far from welcoming at that point (not to mention the fact that she and Winry hadn't decided who would sleep where), so she decided to go outside again.

She leaned up against the house, looking up at the stars again. With each passing minute, more and more appeared. She felt the itch to count them, but she knew it was futile—she had tried once before.

The door beside her opened slowly, and she turned to see Alphonse sneaking outside, trying to move as quietly as possible. When he shut the door behind him, she made herself known.

"Hello, Alphonse."

The armor-boy jumped nearly a foot in the air and spun around to face her. "D-Delilah! Don't scare me like that!"

"Oh." She frowned. "I apologize. I did not mean to startle you."

Alphonse visibly relaxed—as much as a suit of armor could. "It's okay. What're you doing out here?"

"Thinking. I did not feel like sleeping, not yet," she replied softly. "What about you?"

Alphonse paused, and then spoke quietly. "I'm going to go visit Mom." He seemed to think something over for a moment. "Would you like to come with me? I'm sure she'd like company. She would like you, I'm sure."

Delilah tipped her head. "Do you want to see her by yourself?"

"I'm fine if you want to come with me. I don't mind."

Delilah considered the invitation, then nodded. "Okay."

a/n: I apologize for any typos there may be. It's about 12:30am right now, so I'm kinda sleepy, but I wanted to upload today since I was nearly finished the chapter. I managed to write a lot more words than the previous chapters, maybe I'll keep with with more words? Idk. It doesn't matter much, I guess.

...I'm probably going to look at this when I wake up and wonder what the hell I was doing, writing an author note at 12:30am, but I'm having too much fun right now to stop. Haha.

Anyway, the stuff about the Stone in this chapter; I have no idea if anyone else sees it when they watch FMA, but the Stone really does go by Equivalent Exchange, using the human souls inside it. I don't remember if any of the characters figure this out, though. And maybe I'm just babbling right now? But I figured it out a while ago and talked to one of my tumblr friends about it, and she agreed that the Stone being bound by Equivalent Exchange made sense, and that it meant that the Stone wasn't some "magical cure-all" or something...which it isn't. Wow, I really probably am babbling. I should shut up.

Anything else I need to say? Uh, yes, they should get to Central next chapter, and fjlaksjdfa;ldfj the end of this chapter made me want to fangirl because lol Al's such a sweetheart. And I really do have a headcanon that he snuck out to visit Trisha's grave before they left, so I decided to go ahead and include that in here.

Um, I guess you can review now? I'll appreciate it a lot when I wake up. Hell, I'll appreciate it in my sleep. Even though I got less reviews for the last chapter than for the chapter before that, I'm still really happy that you guys appear to like this.

I really need to stop or half my fic will be an author note...

Bye, then~!

EDIT: Fixed one or two typos.