I don't own FMA, I only own my own OC(s).

Nineteen

Even though there wasn't that much to do in Dublith compared to Central or even Rush Valley, the days passed by relatively quickly. A routine soon developed: breakfast; alchemy training (Izumi helped Ed and Al out a couple times in order to better teach Delilah); lunch; helping Mason and Sig in the shop (Delilah couldn't do much because she wasn't strong enough to lift the meat around, so Izumi sent her out on errands, and Ed and Al took turns going with her); then dinner; and after that, anything could happen before they all eventually retired for the night. And then, it would all repeat the next day.

On the night they got back from the library, Ed and Al decided not to mention the mysterious man they had met, so Delilah went along with their decision. She figured it was because they didn't want Izumi to worry about them. However, she was a bit worried herself, especially by the beggar's…tail. And her nervousness wasn't helped when she overheard the brothers talking about him.

She had just changed into her nightgown and was about to head back into the room when Al's voice slightly wafted out from behind the door. "…don't think he was a…chimera?"

Ed said something sharp, but his words were hard to make out. There was some mumbling, and then silence.

Delilah hesitated for a moment before entering the room, trying to act like she hadn't heard anything. Ed moodily disappeared under his covers, and Al sighed softly.

When he noticed Delilah's expression, he hastily said, "Don't worry, Brother's just being Brother."

Delilah paused, but she took her medicine and went to bed.

()()()()()

Thankfully, there was no sign of the strange beggar, and Delilah's nerves managed to calm. She was still concerned about this "chimera" the boys had talked of, but she didn't confront them about it. She also got progressively worried about Marcoh, and sitting around in one place wasn't really helping. To manage her thoughts, she started on her new gloves. The white material she bought with borrowed money from Ed was easy to transmute into a set of fingerless gloves. From that point, she worked to stitch the transmutation circles by hand. She started with the basic circle on the left palm.

She was working on them one morning before the brothers were to tutor her when Ed suddenly froze.

Delilah looked up. "Is something wrong, Edward?"

He looked morbid. "I totally forgot about this year's assessment."

Al reacted immediately. "Oh, no!"

"What're you going on about?" Izumi asked.

"The annual assessment for State Alchemists," Ed explained nervously. "Every year we have to pass an assessment or they'll take away your license. I've been so busy lately, I forgot all about it…. This isn't good. Not good at all."

"Great!" said Izumi. "You can use this opportunity to quit being the military's dog." She grabbed a phone. "I'll go ahead and let the military know you won't be showing up."

"Stop!" Ed flailed for a moment before pacing. "I've been meaning to go to headquarters, anyway," he muttered.

"Oh, Brother, isn't Southern Headquarters just two stops away?" Al said.

"Thanks, Al," Ed said as he hurried to retrieve his things from his room. He came back with his suitcase, which he put on the table so he could put on his jacket.

"You will pass it," Delilah said, trying to encourage him.

"Yeah," Ed agreed, "it's just stressful." He put on his gloves, gathered his things, and hurried to the door.

"Be careful!" Al called.

"I'll be fine. I'll be back in two or three days. See you!" And Ed disappeared out the door.

Izumi wasn't impressed. "Why does he always rush?"

"U-um, actually… Hey, Delilah," Al said, "we should probably go with him—"

Izumi grabbed Al by the feather on his helmet. "Not so fast!" she said with faux sweetness. "You're gonna stay here and spar with me!"

Delilah didn't know whether to laugh or cry for Al.

()()()()()

"Good job!" Al said, inspecting Delilah's alchemy. She had managed to transmute a cat figurine out of the dirt, and it actually looked rather cute this time, rather than bulky.

Delilah smiled at the praise. "Thanks."

"Try making it into lead," Al suggested.

Delilah put her hands back on the circle and focused. There was a flash of sparks, and the structure of the cat changed, and its color became darker. Al picked it up.

"Good, good!" He put it back down again and had her change it back and transmute it into the ground once more. "You're getting really good at this. I knew that you only needed practice."

Al's praise made Delilah feel particularly happy and warm. "Thanks," she repeated, not really knowing what else to say.

"How are your gloves coming along?" Al asked, erasing some of the chalk marks off of the circle. He handed her a piece of chalk and asked her to draw the runes needed to effectively pull out only the carbon from the dirt.

"Well," she replied, getting to work. "I am about halfway done with the basic circle. It is rather difficult to sew it in, but I think that would be the most permanent way to do it."

"You're going to put the healing circle on the other one, right?"

She nodded. "But I am a little bit worried about making that one. I do not want to make it wrong."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Al assured her. "You know how to draw it, so you probably won't make a mistake."

She frowned and stopped drawing in the runes on the circle.

Al tipped his head. "What's wrong?" he asked concernedly.

"I was just thinking…." She paused, not really wanting to say any more, but she remembered Izumi's words from the other day and added, "…I was just thinking that I want to doctor to take a look at it when I finish it."

A heavy silence fell upon them for a moment. Despite her attempts to quell her emotions, Delilah's eyes started to leak with tears.

"You're really worried about him," Al noted softly.

She nodded mutely, keeping her eyes down.

"It's okay to be worried," he told her. "Sooner or late we'll find him, Delilah, I'm sure we will."

The tears started to come faster. "I…I want to believe that, but if we never do…" I don't want to get my hopes up…for something that might not happen….

Al put a hand on her shoulder. "We will find him," he said firmly, locking his eyes with hers. "I promise you, I'm going to help you however I can. I promise."

The words meant so much to her that she suddenly flung herself at him, embracing him. She freely cried against his steel body. For a moment, he was taken by surprise, but soon he was rubbing her back and trying to calm her.

"I-I…think of him as if he were my father," she finally admitted, still pressing her face against Al's stiff, uncomfortable chest plate, trying to distract herself from the terrible feeling in her entire body. "I-I never wanted to, b-because I ha-have never known my own and…I always wondered if he would abandon me, too; if he would find something wrong with me, too…."

She clutched at Alphonse, wishing he could feel her, wishing she could get him to understand how physically hurt she felt, not just emotionally. "I cannot understand…how there can be people like him and the LeCourts, and like your mom…but then there are parents like mine…. Did I do something wrong?"

"Of course you didn't!" Al protested vehemently. "You were just a baby, right? How could you have done anything wrong?"

She didn't answer.

"…Listen," Al said. "My dad left us when I was little. I don't really remember him that much, or know why he left. But…part of me thinks that he left because there was something important that he had to do. So maybe…maybe your parents didn't abandon you because you were sick or anything like that. Maybe they felt it was better for you to grow up away from them. Maybe they were young or poor and thought you'd be better off. It could be anything, Delilah, so don't assume the worst."

She was listening so attentively to him that she didn't realize that she had stopped crying.

"Not everyone is going to leave you, Delilah," Al said quietly. "And don't think for a second that Brother and I will."

His words struck her, silencing her completely—silencing even her thoughts, for a moment. She pulled away from him and looked up at him, and even though his eyes weren't exactly eyes, he was gazing at her with such a strong sincerity that she suddenly blushed and busied herself with wiping away her tears. She felt rather hot all over, and she didn't want him to notice.

"T-thank you, Alphonse," she whispered.

He nodded to her, and it almost appeared as if he were smiling—maybe it felt that way because of the sound of his voice, or his actions, or the way that his eyes seemed to close for just a moment. "No problem. And…" He scratched the back of his helmet and added embarrassedly, "if you want—if it'll make you feel better—you can always sleep in my armor…if you want."

Her blush deepened, and she nodded. "Thank you…." She finished wiping at her eyes and didn't really know what to do with her hands anymore, so she put them in her lap. "I honestly…do not know what I would do without you two," she admitted.

Al gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You'd figure out something." He looked up at the sun. "It should be almost time for lunch. You head inside and I'll clean this chalk up."

Delilah nodded again, this time smiling, and went back inside to clean up before eating. Izumi had made roast beef, and Delilah helped her set it out on the table. Soon, Mason and Sig came in from the shop and ate with them. Alphonse apparently remained outside—no one was concerned, since he didn't need to eat anyways. Izumi voiced the assumption that he'd gone for a walk, and it was left at that.

Delilah felt especially happy as she ate; it was as if there was a candle lit somewhere in her body, warming her from the inside out. Of course, she hadn't forgotten about what she had said about Marcoh and her parents, but those thoughts were pushed to the side for now. She had been feeling apprehensive about revealing those worries to Ed and Al (well, so far, it was just Al), even after Izumi's assurances that the boys wouldn't want her to keep anything from them. And now that Alphonse had helped her through her confession—more than helped, actually—she had nothing but hopeful thoughts running through her head.

'I promise you, I'm going to help you however I can.'

The memory of Al's words made her blush again. She wondered why; certainly, she felt that if Ed said the same thing, she wouldn't have such a reaction. What made Alphonse so special? After all, both he and Ed were her friends, and she loved them—

The thought sidetracked her. She loved them. Like…well, she wasn't sure, but she knew at once that it had to be defined as some sort of love. She could only really compare it to the love she had for Marcoh, but it was still different. She loved Marcoh as a daughter loves a father. Perhaps she adored Ed and Al as if they were her brothers. But…what sort of love would make her blush? She certainly didn't care for one brother more than the other, but now, when she thought of Alphonse, a different feeling pooled in her as opposed to when she thought of Edward.

"What're you smiling about?" Izumi asked slyly.

Delilah jolted out of her reverie. "Oh," she said; she hadn't been aware that she had been smiling. She found herself too embarrassed to confess, so she half-lied. "Alphonse says my alchemy is getting really good."

Izumi didn't really seem to buy it, but apparently Mason and Sig did. "Did you make anything interesting today?" Mason asked, and the conversation drifted from there.

Afterwards, once the dishes were done, Al still hadn't come back. Izumi wasn't too concerned.

"He probably found a stray," she muttered. "Goodness knows he'd lose track of time if he found a stray."

The thought made Delilah smile. If Al had found a cat, she would've liked to have gone out with him, but then again, he had gone off on his own. She didn't want to intrude. He probably wanted to be alone for a while, for whatever reason.

To pass the time, she began to work more on her transmutation gloves. The hours ticked by, and before she knew it, Izumi was calling her for dinner. Satisfied with her work (she had finally finished on the left glove and planned to try it out tomorrow), Delilah rose from her seat in the living room and went into the kitchen.

"You haven't see Al, have you?" Sig asked the general group as they sat down.

Delilah became worried. "You mean he is not back yet?"

"What could he be up to?!" Izumi asked irritably.

"You know, boss, I'm a little worried," Mason said. He held up a finger and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Maybe he was kidnapped."

Izumi looked at him squarely before she burst out laughing. "Yeah, right!" she said, and Mason and Sig joined in her laughter. "Like that could ever happen!"

Delilah couldn't share their joke. As soon as Mason had suggested the idea—even if he had been joking—the thought had taken root in her mind, leaving her confused and worried. What if Alphonse really was in trouble? What if he was kidnapped?

After Izumi quieted down, she noticed Delilah's expression. "Don't worry, Delilah, he'll probably be back by morning."

He wasn't.

()()()()()

Delilah didn't sleep. She lay down in her bed—forgetting to take her medicine—and stared at the door. The absences of Ed's snoring and the sound of Al flipping pages as he read fed her anxious thoughts. Her mind switched between the brothers, coming up with awful circumstances for the both of them. Since Alphonse's lack of presence was unexplained, her thoughts drifted more to him. What could've happened to him? Was Ed okay, too?

What if they left me?

She shook her head immediately, remembering Al's words. He was the most sincere and genuine person she knew, and she trusted him—and of course she trusted Ed, too. They wouldn't just leave her, and she felt guilty for even thinking such a thing.

The hours passed slowly, and Delilah wasn't even able to imagine a distant clank of armor, let alone hear it.

The door finally opened at the crack of dawn, but it wasn't Al who opened it, like she had been hoping. Instead, Izumi stood in the doorway.

"Quick," the woman ordered. "Change and eat. We're going to look for him."

()()()()()

The search lasted for hours, and Delilah was exhausted by the time lunch came around. Izumi noticed, and Delilah was forced to admit about her insomnia. Izumi needed to hear no more before she dragged the girl home and commanded her to take her medicine and hit the hay for a few hours. Delilah was reluctant—she was anxious about finding Alphonse—but Izumi won, and not long after, Delilah fell asleep, consumed by her medicine and fatigue.

When she awoke, she noted that only a few hours had passed. For a moment, she lay on her bed, peaceful, before the memories of what had happened came back to her. She sat straight up, her worry for Al causing her movements to be jerky, and hurried out of the room.

"Al was what?!"

Delilah stopped short before she could enter the kitchen. She easily recognized that the voice was Ed's, but for some reason, she was too nervous to see him just then. What he had said—that something had happened to Al, not that Al had just gone missing—didn't match up with what she knew. She must have missed something while she was asleep.

For the slightest moment, she was angry at Izumi for making her rest.

Edward continued. "What do you mean, 'kidnapped'? What happened?"

Delilah thought he heart stopped. Kidnapped?

"Things got a little complicated," Izumi muttered, just loud enough to be heard. Delilah realized that Izumi must have met the kidnappers for her to know what had happened to Alphonse.

"But why?" Ed asked. "Do they want a ransom?"

"They want information about Al's soul," Izumi explained. "They want me to bring you to them."

"Who in the world would want to know something like that?"

"…A man named Greed, with an Ouroboros tattoo on his hand. It's hard to believe, but apparently he's a real homunculus."

Delilah was only vaguely aware that the conversation was still taking place. An Ouroboros… A homunculus? She didn't know what that was. But that tattoo must have meant that this "Greed" was like Envy, and that woman Ed saw…. Were they all homunculi?

She felt nauseated. All she could see in her mind's eye was the Ouroboros and Envy's perverse smile and the blood on her hand and Alphonse being subjected to some sort of torture, his body twisted and torn into scattered scraps, claws scraping at his blood seal—

"Hey, Delilah." Izumi snapped her fingers in front of Delilah's face, bringing her back to the present. The woman then smiled in relief, before getting angry. "You idiot, you should be asleep! And you worried me just now; you wouldn't respond to me. Are you okay?"

Delilah ignored the question. "A homunculus took Alphonse? What is that? You went after him?" She asked all this in a rush, and she suddenly remembered the beggar and what Alphonse had called him. "Were there chimeras there? Is that—?"

"Whoa, there," Izumi said, placing her hands on Delilah's shoulders. The woman seemed worried. "Calm down."

"I want to know what happened to Alphonse!" Delilah insisted. She obeyed Izumi and spoke more quietly and slowly, but she couldn't stop tears from leaking out of her eyes.

Izumi opened her mouth, and for a moment nothing came out. She looked at war with herself.

"Please," Delilah said.

Izumi softened. "I went to a place called the Devil's Nest. Alphonse is being held there by some thugs—I suppose they're chimeras, but I've never heard of humanoid ones—and a homunculus named Greed. A homunculus…is an artificially-created human being. It's supposed to be impossible to create them…but there was no doubt that he was…superhuman."

"Did they hurt Alphonse?"

"No. They just want to exchange him for information; apparently they don't want to hurt him."

A huge burden lifted from Delilah, and she let out a breath that she hadn't known she'd been holding. She wanted to know more about this Greed guy, but she figured that Izumi didn't have much information. "What is a chimera?"

Izumi frowned. "You don't know? Surely Marcoh explained something about them?"

Delilah shook her head. "There were a lot of things the doctor did not tell me about. But…on the day we were late coming back here, we met some man…with a tail. I overheard Al call him a chimera, but I did not ask."

Izumi didn't look remotely pleased. "Those boys… Anyway. They're hybrid animals made with alchemy. It's a tricky business done only by a few people, all of them State Alchemists. But the people I saw…were people combined with animals. That shouldn't be possible. Well, not ethical, at least."

Delilah suddenly felt drained. "Is that it?"

"Well, apparently the Fuhrer has dropped by here in Dublith—in secret, of course," Izumi explained, and Delilah was surprised at the news, though she said nothing. "I'm not sure what that'll do, though. He tried to see me to try and convince me to become a State Alchemist, hah!" Izumi laughed a little before she sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Your hand!" Delilah said, noticing the bandages. For a moment, she allowed herself to think about what was in front of her rather than what wasn't. "Let me heal it," she said, and Izumi allowed her to lead the way into the kitchen to sit at the table. The girl drew a quick circle on the table and unwrapped the bandages around Izumi's hand to reveal bloody knuckles that were quickly repaired with alchemy.

"You're good at that," Izumi noted. "I've never gone into healing alchemy."

"I want to help people with it, however I can," Delilah admitted.

Izumi smiled. "That's good."

A silence settled between them, and the weight came back onto Delilah once again. "Where did Edward go?"

"To get his brother. I told him to be back home in time for dinner."

Delilah felt cold. "So…we just wait?"

"Until then, yes."

a/n: Uuuum, I can't remember the last time I updated, but I know it wasn't TOO long ago... XD;; Anyway, I have to admit...I flailed at my own writing. I fangirled over my own writing. Because Alphonse. And Delilah. *sobbu* I ship them...very hard...

Anyway, yeah, Al got kidnapped, Delilah realized that she feels a "certain" way about him...hehehehfkljas;fanhsdf;kla *falls over* Sorry... Ahem, anyway, more to come in the next chapter! I know some of you wondered if Delilah would meet Greed, but that wasn't really what I had planned. *shrug*

In any case, I'm not sure when the next update will be! I'm going to be super busy with school soon, I think. And my sister had twins yesterday! TWINS! Two. Babies. That are going to live in our attached apartment/refurbished garaged. Cute babies. Crying babies. Two. Babies. *sobs because there's never going to be a peaceful night again*

Anyway, I have to go. Please take the time to review, it means a lot to me!