Edward had left the training hall long ago, popping the casing back on his arm and leg. He went back to his room and just lay on his bunk, staring at the ceiling. The look in Cynthia's eyes could have been nothing more than terrified. His metal limbs had scared her…

I feel… Edward covered his eyes with his arm. Like… a machine…

Alphonse knocked lightly on the door, then pushed his way in. "Brother, class just let out… Are you okay? Where's Cynthia?"

"I don't know…" He popped the casing from his arm. "Cynthia knows… And frankly, I think she's… Terrified."

"Oh, brother… To be feared by the girl you like…"

"I don't like her!" He growled angrily. Edward paused. "Have you seen Envy, Wrath or Lust lately?"

"I saw Envy and Lust leaving armed combat, but Wrath wasn't in hand to hand…"

"Really. For all we know, he could have met up with Cynthia."

"Wow…" Cynthia looked around, at the neat beds, the posters on the walls, and the other rich-looking things in Wrath's room. "Wrath, your room is so… Rich!"

"Yeah…" Wrath smiled. "Lust's parents are really, really rich…"

"Lust sounds like a nice…"

"WRATH!" The door swung open to reveal a black haired girl and a black haired boy. Lust was fuming. "What did I tell you about bringing people into our room?" She pointed a long nailed finger at Cynthia. "Get out!"

"NO!" Wrath whined. "She's my friend! I want her to stay!"

"Get her out of here right now!" Lust demanded.

"I dunno Lust…"

Cynthia blinked. And in the time it too her to, Envy jumped over and was now looking at her from inches away. All in all, when she got past his palm-tree hair, he was pretty handsome. "She's pretty cute. Maybe we can keep her!"

"Just what do you think I am, a dog?" Cynthia demanded. "You can't 'keep' a person!"

"I dunno…" Envy scratched the back of his head. "We 'keep' Edward Elric.'"

"I heard!" Cynthia growled. "You can't do that to people! That's cruel and unusual. Edward is not your toy!"

"Oh, but he is!" Cynthia suddenly found her hands pinned at her sides and her back against a wall. Envy smiled. "We use him for everything we could get in trouble for. We know something he doesn't want us to know so we use it against him. Now be a good girl and leave!"

"NO!" Wrath started to cry. "I want my friend to stay! Cynthia!"

"Mm, so you're Cynthia." Lust laughed, sitting on the edge of her bed. "The new student."

Wrath ran over and pounded Envy's side with his fists. "Let her go Envy!"

Envy let go of Cynthia and tossed Wrath onto a bed. "Give it a rest, half-pint…"

He glanced back up from Wrath. Cynthia had fled.

"I've decided: I want that Cynthia girl." Envy pouted. "Lust, help me dig up some dirt on her."

"Will do, Envy."

Cynthia returned to her room.

"Cynthia!" Edward sat up, alarmed. Alphonse was sitting in a chair at the desk, also looking at her. "Er…"

Cynthia, quietly, walked over to the bunk and hoisted herself onto Ed's bunk. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" He asked. Her looked into her eyes, that were sad. He never wanted to see that fear again.

"For running off. I was… Surprised. It's not every day you see a guy with a mechanical arm…"

"And leg." Alphonse added.

"…and leg."

"I totally understand… Just don't tell anyone, please!" Edward half-begged.

"I won't, promise." Cynthia laughed. She hopped off the bed. "It's fine, Ed. Don't worry about it. She pulled her halberd out of its sheath. "Are we allowed to go practice in the training hall after hours?"

"As long as Inuyasha's there." Edward smirked. "Just don't fall asleep in the hall again, okay?"

"I won't. Believe me."

Cynthia walked into the training hall. Inuyasha was over towards the far wall, setting up racks and racks of swords. Before Envy and Lust could dig up any dirt, Cynthia decided she should make up with everyone who could possibly get mad at her. Hence making up with Ed.

Inuyasha cast her a glare. "Oh look, it's little miss Respect."

"Listen…" She sighed. "I'm sorry I was like that, Inuyasha. It's a thing with my family, we're all hot headed. I'm new here, remember."

She held out a hand. Inuyasha stared at it.

"Let's just call a truce."

Inuyasha shook her hand. "Fine…" He muttered.

"CYNTHIA!"

"Eek!" Cynthia flinched. Wrath hugged her legs. "Hi Cynthia!"

"Oh. Hi Wrath." Cynthia smiled.

There was a moment of silence. "Why are you hugging my legs?"

"Because you're too tall."

"Right." She freed herself from Wrath. "I have to go back to my dorm now, okay?"

"NO! IWANTYOUTOCOMEBACKTOMYDORMPLEASEPLEASE?" Tears bubbled up to Wrath's eyes.

"You remember the LAST TIME I went to your room?"

Another silence.

"…No?"

"I'm sorry, Wrath, but I have to leave now."

"No fair…"

It was the next morning, and also, Cynthia Suhn's very first hand to hand combat class. She and Edward got together as sparring partners, because Edward didn't want to be paired up with Envy, and Cynthia didn't want to be with Lust. Envy chose his friend and Lust was paired up with some poor girl, to Edward and Cynthia's enjoyment.

There were dozens of small circles on the ground of the hand-to-hand combat hall. Genma Saotome, the martial arts teacher, selected one for each pair.

So Cynthia and Edward began to spar. They were not at equal skill; Edward was much more skilled than Cynthia. Cynthia was just stronger than Edward.

The bell rang, Cynthia and Edward waited ten minutes, and went to their next class, swordplay.

A tiny black pig stood shivering in the snow. Yes, this was Ryouga Hibiki, the boy with the worst sense of direction on earth and, in addition to that, turns into a pig when splashed with cold water. Too much snow had melted on him, and so he became a pig. He had dragged his backpack with him the whole way to the school, his one-ton umbrella being the hardest to tow. But he managed. Ryouga had been caught in the forest for longer than any other student in LSIG's history, but luckily, it was a island, and he couldn't stay lost for TOO long.

Now was the task of getting his things up the front steps.

Cynthia grabbed her halberd, and Edward took a katana from the half-empty sword rack. They sat down and waited for Inuyasha to come. He soon did, and too told them to get with their sparring partners. Cynthia and Edward chose each other immediately, but Inuyasha said, "Ed, go find someone else. I'll spar with Cynthia, her halberd would break your katana."

Edward gave Cynthia a 'good luck' glance, then set off and paired up with someone else.

Cynthia twirled her halberd and looked around. "Inuyasha, there's too many people. I can't swing my halberd without killing somebody."

"Would you rather fight outside?"

"…Yes."

"… I despise you."

"No you don't.

"Shut up."

Ryouga had dragged his things up the first two stairs. Right. Only six to go. Suddenly the door burst open, and two humans… A human and some king of dog-thing… Flew out, the human battering away at the dog-things sword with her halberd.

Ryouga jumped back, squealing. But then he sat down to watch. The human's halberd looked heavy.

…

Someone to help him bring in his things!

Cynthia simply hacked away at Inuyasha with her halberd, with a never-ending fountain of energy. Inuyasha did not expect such speed, and made a mental note of it for the future. The Tetsusaiga stung his hands every time Cynthia's halberd clashed forcefully against it. This went on for some time.

LONGER than some time. Finally, Cynthia felt the halberd wrenched from her grasp, hearing the hiss as it flew off into the trees. However, Inuyasha's sword flew off in the opposite direction.

"There." Cynthia muttered. "A draw."

"Fine…" Inuyasha pulled his sword from the timbers of a tree, as did Cynthia. She turned back to the stairs, where she saw a small black pig, a snow-covered backpack and an umbrella.

"Aw, how cute." She picked up the pig. "My, you're cold!"

Ryouga oinked and squirmed.

"Calm down." She picked up the backpack. "Hm? Whatever. I'll put this in my room… Inuyasha!"

She turned to the half-demon. "Are we allowed to keep animals?"

"As long as they don't crap on the floor."

"Here." Cynthia put Ryouga down on her bed and wrapped him in a small blanket. The black pig oinked. He was suddenly warm and very cozy.

"Do you have an owner?" Cynthia's fingers slipped along the bandana around his neck. "Surely you didn't put this on yourself?"

Ryouga shivered at the feel of her fingers on his bandana. He shook his head.

"Oh, that's not good. How about you stay with me for a while?"

Ryouga shook his head strongly and shrugged off the blanket. No! I have to enroll and get my own room! He thought.

"Aw… At least stay to meet Ed!"

Ryouga shrugged. Why not? But I do need to get my dorm room and enroll so I can train to fight Ranma…

Edward and Alphonse walked in the room, chatting with each other quietly. Two of the fingers on Edward's right hand were pulled all the way back, in an inhuman way. Ryouga's piggy-eyes widened. It wasn't the injury, it was the fact that Edward didn't seem bothered by it.

"Hey, Ed! Al!" Cynthia flashed a smile. Then her eyes shifted to his hand. "What happened?"

"Ugh…" Ed sighed and jumped onto his bed. "My sparring partner did it. I had to fake scream."

Fake? Ryouga thought.

"Oh. Why don't you just push them back?"

"They're jammed pretty hard, and my organic hand can't push them back. Could you do it?"

"Sure. Pop off your casing."

Casing? Ryouga thought, oinking.

Edward looked at him. "What the Hell is that?"

"A pig. I didn't name him, because he might already have a name!" Cynthia beckoned to the chair at the desk. "Come here and sit down."

Edward did so, popping his casing and holding out his arm. "Here…"

With a metallic squeak, Cynthia pushed his fingers back. Edward wiggled them. "Thanks."

Ryouga stared with wide eyes. What the…

"Oh, my!" Cynthia picked him up and rubbed a finger delicately on one of his ears. "You're filthy! I'll go give you a bath, okay?"

Ryouga's eyes widened. He oinked and squirmed, but Cynthia, being the strong girl she was, held on. "Come on, it can't be that bad! It's just a little hot water!"

That's what I'm worried about.

Cynthia had a firm hold on Ryouga's bandana by the time the bath filled to the top. "Come on, little guy. Who knows how long you were in that forest? Days?"

Months.

"Bottom line, you're filthy." She finally turned off the water and swirling it around with one hand. "I didn't think you wanted bubbles, being a pig and all. Sure, people say you like rolling in mud and stuff, but I believe that there CAN actually be a clean pig in this world."

Edward lounged on his bed, his eyes closed in thought. The door squeaked. Al is probably going back to his room, he thought. But a note flew through the air and struck his nose, just as the door slammed shut again. He opened one eye and picked the note off his chest, unfolding it and scanning over the lines of a messy scrawl.

Meet me at the HTH training hall 9:00 pm

HTH was an abbreviation for hand to hand. Edward, with no doubt, knew it was Envy. And for all he knew, it could be a horrible, embarrassing trap.

Nevertheless, he glanced into the open door to the bathroom and said, "I'm going out."

"After hours?" Cynthia looked up from the tub, Ryouga, still dry, in her arms.

"Yeah… It's… Business."

"Whatever. If you get in trouble, I had nothing to do with it."

"Right.

"I guess I'll go too…" Alphonse said, standing. "I have to go back to my room anyway."

Alphonse and Edward left. For a while, they walked side by side and silence, until they came to the corner where Edward and Alphonse parted.

"Al." Edward caught his brother by the shoulder. "Was it Envy who threw me this note?" He asked, holding the note loosely in between his fingers.

"No, it was Wrath." Alphonse replied. "Envy's delivery boy."

"Hehe." Cynthia hugged Ryouga. "In you go!"

Ryouga scrambled, his pig legs nearly touching the water. … Damn. This is very, very… He did not get to finish his thought. His head went underwater.

Cynthia turned around. "Don't worry, little piggy! I'll get you all cleaned up, then when it gets warm I'll take you to look for your owner… if you have one, anyway."

She turned back around and stared into the annoyed face of Ryouga.

Blink. She timidly reached up and unraveled one of the ten-odd bandana's Ryouga wore and held it delicately in her hands.

"Oh my God, you're that pig."