DISCLAIMER: I don't own FMA. I only own my own OCs and this fic. Yay.

Thirteen

Alphonse had carried small animals and a few people inside him, but no one had ever slept in him before. He couldn't feel Delilah inside him, of course, but he felt acutely aware of the fact that she was there. He couldn't see her, but he could hear her quiet, measured breathing echo through his hollow body.

He was unused to this, and he worried about waking her. Normally, he didn't move any part of himself at night (unless he was reading), but since he was so anxious about stirring her, he was convinced that he would be twitching if he were in his real body. But then again, if he were in his real body, he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

And so, the hours passed slowly as they always did. As he waited for the world to wake up, he wondered, not for the first time, what sort of mess he and his brother had gotten themselves into this time. Marcoh and the Philosopher's Stone, not to mention the doctor's disappearance and the whole incident at Laboratory Five…

He also thought about the girl sleeping inside him. What had she been thinking for the entire time since that night? She had become so tired, worn, and scared…how could he not have noticed? And he had also frightened her. Even if she didn't blame him, he still felt guilty. She was just so…tiny and fragile, and inexperienced with the world, even though she had gone through what many hadn't. But still, she had seemed as equally concerned about him and Edward as she had been about herself.

And that fact made Alphonse feel…happy, in a way. It meant she cared, like when Granny Pinako and Winry worried about them. Of course, he wasn't the least bit pleased with why she was anxious about them. After all, in order to even feel safe enough to sleep, she had to sleep inside his chest.

The fact that she trusted him so much already made him feel glad as well.

He remembered how he had promised to make her feel safe, and it was a vow that he didn't have to think twice about. He may not have known her for long, but they were friends, and he trusted her.

()()()()()

Ed woke not long after sunrise. He blearily sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched his arms. Once he gained enough sense, he looked around the room.

"`Morning, Al," he yawned. He blinked. "Where's Del?"

Not wanting to wake her with his voice, Al pointed to his chest.

Ed stared stupidly at him for a moment before a sly look transformed his features. "I'm used to you sneaking cats around, but I didn't expect you to want to hide girls, too."

His teasing would've caused Al to blush if he had a body able to do so. "Brother, she couldn't sleep," he hissed. "She asked to."

Ed's entire being seemed to be made only of mirth. "You sure you didn't do anything to get her in there?"

Al was a bit miffed at the thought that he would even try to do anything like that. But in any case, he didn't want Ed to start mocking Delilah too, so he explained, "She didn't feel safe, Brother."

This seemed to sober Ed up some. "Well…we'll just have to toughen her up a bit, if she wants to go with us. You should prob'ly wake her up now; our train leaves early."

As much as Al wanted to, he couldn't argue with Ed's statement. He pushed the thought aside for now and looked down at his chest, even though he couldn't see her. "Delilah? It's time to get up. Delilah?"

()()()()()

Blearily, Delilah opened her eyes. It took her a moment to register the fact that Alphonse's voice was reverberating more than usual. After a few seconds, she remembered why.

"Is it morning?" she asked, sitting up.

"Ah, you're up!" Al replied cheerily. "Yep. We have to catch our train soon though. I'm going to let you out, okay?"

She nodded. Belatedly realizing that he couldn't see her, she voiced her affirmation and he opened up his chest. Since she was prepared for it this time, she managed to slide out with a little more dignity than the day before.

"Did you sleep well?" Al asked her.

"Yes. Thank you." She pulled her blanket out of his chest and placed it on the cot, but not before folding it. Al closed himself up.

"You might wanna take a shower before we leave, Del," Ed warned, pulling his clothes out of his suitcase. "It'll take about a day to get to Rush Valley, and I dunno what place we'll be staying at there…as if I want to," he added mutinously, grumbling about a certain "gearhead" and her "annoying automail obsession."

Delilah readily agreed and grabbed her briefcase, heading into the bathroom. While she showered, it was easy for her to think about how much had happened to her in such a short time. Her encounter with Envy felt like had happened merely yesterday, but thankfully, she no longer felt completely overwhelmed by it. She knew she had Alphonse and Edward to thank for that, and she was grateful to them.

When she finished, she dressed quickly and left the bathroom, allowing Ed to have his turn. While waiting for him to finish, she pulled out her hairbrush and ran it through her wet hair with careful, deliberate strokes. She was silent, thinking about how she was actually going to travel now, with Edward and Alphonse and Winry.

It was a relief to finally be able to think about something positive for once, but she was determined to find Marcoh and to better herself in order to do so…and, if at all possible, help Ed and Al return to their original bodies.

()()()()()

The teenagers were seen off at the station by the Major, Ross, Brosh, and Gracia and Elicia Hughes (Maes was too busy at his office to come, but sent word with Winry that he would do everything in his power to greet them at the station when they next came to Central). The train ride to Rush Valley was scheduled to take a whole day, so Mrs. Hughes gave gifts to the girls she had temporarily housed so that the time might go by a bit faster. To Winry, she gave an apple pie; and to Delilah, she passed along a book from Sheska. It was one of the medical textbooks that the young girl had ogled at when visiting the bookworm.

An equally important gift came in the form of hugs from Elicia, to all of them (although she seemed to hug Winry for the longest time and Ed for the shortest). The Major also gave them all one massive hug, but somehow it just didn't invoke the same feeling.

Finally, the four boarded the train and managed to find a comfortable enough spot to spend the ride. When they were well on their way, Edward peered at Delilah's new book. "A Detailed Description of the Human Body'? I know you're smart and all, Del, but that looks pretty thick."

"But it is important to know it for alchemy, right?"

The boy shrugged. "It's good to know what the body is made of and how things are supposed to work, but Al and I never really went much farther than that."

"The doctor's an alchemist, right?" Winry asked Delilah. "Is that why you're one, too?"

The mention of Marcoh distracted Delilah for a second. "I have never really thought about it before," she realized aloud. "I supposed so. I have always been reading his medical books and assisting him. I am not well-practiced, and since he is…not here to teach me, I should read as much as I can about the medical field so I may figure out more on medicinal alchemy for myself." She looked to the Elric brothers. "At least I have you two to teach me."

Al scratched his helmet in an embarrassed fashion. Ed made a smug face, and at this Winry suddenly began laughing. Ed pouted.

"What's that for, Winry?"

"Ed…being a teacher…" She laughed a bit more. "Aren't teachers supposed to be patient or something?"

A vein twitched in Ed's forehead. "Of course I'll be a great, patient teacher! Just watch me!" He suddenly pointed at Delilah. "What you need is practice, so get practicing!"

"Don't just yell—" Winry began, but Delilah accidentally spoke over her.

"With what, Teacher?"

Alphonse and Winry just about fell over, but Edward only seemed pleased at such an important title. He looked around their small space, but there wasn't much to transmute, unless they wanted to risk damaging the train and getting in trouble.

"Your book," he said, shrugging.

The idea horrified her and she hugged the book to her chest. "No! What if I mutilate it?"

"You're an alchemist; you should be able to fix it."

She shook her head. "I will not."

"But I'm your teacher!" Ed protested. "You should—"

Winry suddenly hit him with her wrench. "Come on, Ed, stop it."

Ed managed to recover a second later, and unsurprisingly, he began a shouting match with the other blonde.

Alphonse held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Please stop fighting, you two…."

Winry managed to relax first, leaning back a bit in her seat. "So what made you guys want to go see your teacher all of a sudden?" she asked.

Edward calmed as well, though he still seemed a bit uptight about it all. "Two reasons." He held up a gloved finger. "First of all, to get stronger. I've been losing too many fights lately."

Winry twitched. "Huh?! You're going there to get better at fighting? Are you obsessed with that or something?"

"Shut up!" Ed snapped. "My reasons aren't that simple. I dunno how to explain it, but Al and I wanted to get stronger on the inside too. I wanna get way better at fighting."

"Yup!" Al agreed. "I just know we're going to get stronger if we go to Teacher's place!"

Delilah looked at the boys curiously. "What is the second reason?"

Ed grew serious. "I want to ask Teacher about human transmutation." He leaned his head on his hand. "The whole time we trained together, our teacher never taught us anything about the Philosopher's Stone or human transmutation."

"Yeah," Al put in. "And the closer we get to the Philosopher's Stone, the more dangerous it gets. So we thought the best thing to do would be to just ask Teacher directly about whether there's a way to get our original bodies back."

Ed's face twisted into a determined frown and he grit his teeth. "We can't afford to be timid anymore. We have to go ahead and ask her, even if it means that we might get killed."

He paused. "Get killed…" He suddenly slumped, depressed. "We had pretty short lives, didn't we, Al…?"

"I wish I could have at least gotten myself a girlfriend before I died," the younger brother lamented, somehow managing to look just as miserable as Edward.

Winry, not knowing how to react to the situation, exchanged a glance with Delilah, who didn't quite know what to do either. In a stroke of inspiration, Winry pulled out the apple pie that Gracia had given her.

"This should cheer you up," she said, opening the box. "Mrs. Hughes made enough for three people."

Edward greedily grabbed a piece and bit into it hungrily, while Winry and Delilah were a bit more polite in taking their food. Delilah had actually only had pie on a small number of occasions, and they usually were made by Marcoh's grateful patients. However, none of those could even compare to the taste of Gracia's job.

"Mrs. Hughes is a really good cook," Winry explained when Edward voiced his positive opinion on the pie. "She taught me the recipe, so I'll make it for you when you get your original body back, Al."

Alphonse cheered happily.

"The Hugheses are a really nice family, aren't they, Delilah?" Winry went on. The younger girl nodded earnestly.

"Lieutenant Color Hughes, nice?" Edward scoffed. "More like smothery. I didn't ask 'Super Dad' to follow me around all the time."

Alphonse laughed. "He used to come to your hospital room all the time just to talk to you."

Edward's tone grew a bit softer. "Well, yeah. He would always say how busy things were at work, but he still made time to visit me every day. I gotta do something nice for him the next time we go to Central…."

The conversation faded for a little bit after that as they ate. Delilah was hardly able to finish her slice of pie, it was so large.

Alphonse stared out the window, seeming to think about something or other. When Delilah was done eating, he turned to her. "I think I know how to start teaching you."

Edward glanced over curiously. "How?"

"'All is one, and one is all.' You should try to figure out what that means, Delilah. When we first started training with our teacher, she stuck us out on an island in the middle of a lake for a month to try to understand what that meant, but I don't think we'll do that with you." He laughed a little.

Delilah cocked her head. "'All is one, and one is all.'" She paused. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and stared at her lap, frowning. She became lost in deep thought.

a/n: Filler. Sorry. D8 But there was AlxDel fluff up there kf;ajdkj;fka yay. Anyway, I can't really have a long a/n today, I have to leave for work really soon. *sighs*

Thank you all very, very much for your reviews/favorites/follows, they really, really do mean a lot to me, and I hope you continue to do so. *hugs for all*