"B-brother? Where are we?" Al stammered, keeping close to Ed as they made their way through the darkness.

"The hell if I know Al. If it were daytime I might be able to tell, but I guess when it gets dark around here, it gets DARK." Ed told his brother, his arms out so he could feel for anything in front of him.

The brothers had made it away from buildings and were now surrounded by trees. Not exactly a forest, but something close. Either way it was just out of town and for whatever reason, they both had the notion that Hazel was somewhere in the direction they were going, which was why they had been calling her name for the past hour.

Then Edward heard something. It was like Hazel was calling their names, but it wasn't his ears that were hearing it. He was hearing her in his head. Then he saw her. Only for a split second, but she was sitting in a clearing, moonlight making silver highlights in her hair. She was looking at him, and her eyes were filled with relief. As soon as she disappeared, Ed knew exactly where she was.

"C'mon Al." was all he said before taking off through the trees.

They ran for a few minutes, twisting through the trees and passing the same place more than once. Ed eventually did stop running, however, and when that happened, he stopped so suddenly that Al nearly ran into him.

"Where is she?" Ed asked, stepping into the clearing he had just found. It was the same one in his vision.

"Where is who, brother? Hazel?" Al asked, obviously confused. "Why'd you think she'd be here?"

"But... I thought I saw..." Ed's voice trailed off as he tried to remember if this was the right spot.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and touched Ed's flesh shoulder. The boy spun around and was nose to nose with a person.

"BOOGLY BOOGLY!" the person shouted. Ed screamed extremely loud and then ran backwards, running into a tree and falling down.

"HAHAHA! You sound like a girl when you scream like that Ed!" Hazel laughed.

"You bitch! Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Edward shouted at her, getting up and brushing himself off. Hazel didn't hear him though, she was doubled over with laughter.

"That scream was too priceless Ed, too priceless." Hazel choked out. She was now holding onto Al for support.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" Ed yelled. He clapped his hands together and put them on the tree behind him, turning the whole thing into a... coat rack? "WHAT THE HELL?" he shouted.

"Ed... Ed st-stop... I... I can't... can't breathe..." Hazel had tears streaming down her face from her laughter.

"FINE THEN!" Edward picked up the coat rack and swung it at Hazel's head, but she collapsed from laughter at just the right moment to miss being hit by the tiny man's rage.

But once the coat rack had made it all the way around, Edward lost his balance and stumbled a few feet before falling. When he had regained his senses, he realized the he had fallen on top of Hazel, who wasn't laughing anymore. In fact, she looked very, very mad. He wondered for a second what it might be before he realized what it was. His flesh hand had landed perfectly on her breast.

"YOU PERVERT!" she screamed, kicking the teen as hard as she could. Fortunately for him, it was in the stomach, and not anywhere lower. Edward fell on his back at least five feet away from her as she got up.

"I'm sorry! It was an accident! I didn't mean to grope you!" He defended himself, putting his metal arm in front of him as Hazel started walking toward him, a menacing gleam in her eye.

"Hazel, please don't hurt him! You know it was an accident!" Al piped up, distracting the girl for a moment. Long enough for Ed to scramble to his feet and climb up a tree so she couldn't reach him.

"Get down from there you coward!" Hazel shouted when she realized where Ed had gone to.

"No way!" Ed called back, "I like it up here! I feel tall!"

"Get down here strawberry short cake, and fight me like the man you aren't!" Hazel shouted, trying to get him mad.

"Like that's gonna bother me this time! I'm actually looking down on my brother for once!" Ed was obviously very happy about his newfound perch.

Below, Hazel crossed her arms and grumbled in defeat. Damn that Elric. She thought.

"Hazel?" Al asked tentatively.

"Yeah, what is it?" Hazel replied, sounding very annoyed.

"Well, the reason we came out here was to make sure that you're okay. You are, aren't you?" Al asked.

"What? Oh, yeah I'm fine. It's not like it was anything serious, I mean, I've gotten hurt a lot worse before." She assured him, rubbing the side of her head that still had gauze. She thought she heard a little gasp come the suit of armor. She smirked at Al's surprise and turned to face Ed's tree to try to get him to come down.

The moment Hazel was facing the tree, however, an upside down Edward face appeared in front of her, causing her to scream.

"Haha! Got you!" Edward laughed, jumping off of the tree, and doing a weird somersault in the air to land on his feet.

"Hey, at least I have an excuse to scream like a girl." Hazel mumbled. She stood there a moment, hating Edward for surprising her like that, when she felt his hand touch her shoulder. She looked into his golden eyes and felt a little uncomfortable.

"That is why we came to find you though. We were worried about you. You're alright, right? I mean he didn't hurt you anything?" Ed asked, staring into her eyes.

"Heh, don't worry. Just got a few ugly words, that's all. He didn't actually hurt me, he just spit in my hair." She told him, smiling. Ed immediately felt like there was water on the back of his head again. He patted the spot to make sure nothing was there, and when there wasn't, he turned his attention back to Hazel.

"So, why did you call me here? To this spot, I mean." He asked. Hazel blinked a few times, and then looked at Al.

"Did you see it too?" she asked him.

"See what?" the younger brother asked, obviously confused. It had been bad enough that his brother had dragged him to their current location, being led by some unseen force, but now Hazel was making it seem like SHE was that force.

"I guess not then." She bowed her head. "Truthfully, I don't know exactly what you saw. Hell, I had no clue that you even saw anything until just now. I mean, I tried to call you, but I can't ever be sure of anything when I try to contact people that way. You must have no idea what I'm saying, huh?" she looked up at the brothers. They looked completely clueless. Well, Ed did, anyway. It was hard to tell what Al was thinking, seeing as he was a metal suit of armor on the outside.

"Wait a minute." Ed said suddenly, "You mean to tell me that you called me here using your 'psychic powers'? I don't believe you." He crossed his arms and glared at her.

"Brother," Al sighed, fearing a repeat performance of that afternoon.

"What, Al? She has no special powers. She can't talk to us using her brain, that's impossible." Ed protested.

"Edward." Hazel said sternly, causing the boy to jump slightly, "Look, I know that you and your brother have lost someone close to you. I didn't when I first met you, but I can tell, now that I've spent more time with you. And I know how you feel." Her voice had been becoming softer with every word. Edward's arms had dropped to his sides somewhere during her speech and his face wore an expression of utter disbelief.

"You mean to tell me that you know about our mom?" he asked, his voice shaking. But not with anything that would normally be perceived as a good thing. His voice was shaking out of pure anger. "How dare you say that. You have no idea about what happened to our mom. Your 'psychic powers' can't give you any clue about how we felt, or how we still feel. Your 'powers' can't tell you why we did what we did to try to bring her back. And don't you dare ever say that you know how we feel. You have no idea. YOU HAVE NO IDEA!" The boy now had tears in his eyes. He fell to his knees and looked at the ground, his tears making little dark patches on the soil. "You never knew your mother," He choked, his voice now barely audible. "You don't know the pain we felt, watching her die. Hearing her say that she wanted to see our father. A dying wish that was never granted. And you say that you know that pain. That's a bunch of bullshit." He pounded his metal fist into the ground, making his white glove dirty. Hazel knelt down in front of him and touched his shoulder, but he shook her off.

"Edward." She said quietly. When there was no response, she stood up and faced Al. "I guess I'll just have to tell this to you then. Is that okay?" Al nodded, lost for words at his brother's melt down. "Well, my mother also had a dying wish that was never granted. She wanted to see me grow up and to live a happy life. That's why she almost got married to my stepfather. He was rich and my mother knew that living with him would give me the best life possible. Guess that backfired though."

"How do you know this?" Al asked, curious as to how Hazel could know so much about a dead mother that she had never known.

"Diary. I found it one day rummaging through her old things. Boy that got me quite a few lashes." It was odd. The girl was talking about it all in an almost happy tone.

"How can you say those things?" Al asked her.

"Hm?"

"Well, you're talking about your mother, whom you've never even met, and about what your step father did to you, but your voice sounds... nearly, well, happy. How can you laugh about such terrible things?" The younger brother's voice was a mixture of worry and confusion.

"Well, aren't you just a bundle of sunshine?" Hazel asked him, hands on her hips.

"You don't even have any remorse for your own mother. That's sick." Came Ed's voice, turning the attention of the other two to him. Hazel smiled.

"I don't have any remorse because I know my mother. Al, you said that I've never met her. In reality, she talks to me all the time." She told the brothers. They both looked at her, even Ed, although he stayed on the ground. "Let me tell you a little tale." She said.

"You little bitch! Don't you EVER say things like that when company is over again!" The only father that I've ever known hollered at me as I was thrown across the room.

What did I do this time? I asked myself, tears rolling down my face already.

Father's friend had asked me what I get taught, since I'm home schooled. I told him that I try to learn what I can, but whenever I mess up, father will yell at me. That's all. I just answered the question, what's so bad about that? Something that my five-year-old brain could not understand at the time, obviously.

As soon as our guests had left, father turned on me. He started saying bad things and hitting me. It hurt more than normal and I started crying immediately. Apparently, that only got him even more angry, as he started hitting me more and then took me down to the basement. I hated in there. It was dark and scary and it felt like anything could pop out and get me.

Eventually, father left me alone in the dark and I started crying louder. It seemed even darker in there than normal that day. I was really scared until I heard a voice. It was soft and comforting.

My daughter, it's okay. I'm here for you. I always will be, whenever you need me.

That was all it said, but I felt better the second I heard it. And I still do, every time.

The brothers were speechless. Not even Ed could find any words to contradict her. Hazel walked over to the older brother and helped him up.

"You really miss your mother, don't you?" she asked him, staring HIM in the eyes this time. "If you want, I can let her talk to you. But you have to believe in me."

"No way." Ed told her, finding his voice and common sense. "I told you, your powers don't exist. It's physically impossible." Something changed in Hazel's eyes, and for a moment, the teen thought that he had finally won. But instead, the girl took a step closer to him. One step turned to two steps, and Ed realized that she was awfully close. Her hands closed over his, both of them, and she leaned forward. She was almost uncomfortably close now, but Edward did nothing to push her away. Something was holding him back. Love? No, again he dismissed it. But if it wasn't love stopping him from pushing her away and running behind a tree to vomit, what was?

Cliffy :D