Author's note: For those who don't know, Transylvania is a province within Romania, a country in Europe. Many thanks to The 80's Lover, Barbara Akers, Monk of the Neko, and Raiyne Nagakura for their reviews! It's always good to know that someone is actually reading this thing ;)

The Reinhardts

"Nice to meet you, Edward Elric," Anna said. She leaned forward and offered her hand, but Edward did not offer his in return.

"I would shake your hand, but I injured mine a long time ago." He lifted his right arm to demonstrate, and his hand dangled limply at the wrist. "Sorry."

"Oh no, that's terrible! Don't be sorry. Anyway, is it all right if we join you?"

Edward seemed surprised at the request, but nodded. Anna sat down across from him, and thought she saw her brother roll his eyes at her. "Stupid boy-crazy sister," he muttered under his breath—just loud enough for her to hear—as he took his place next to her. Anna wrinkled her nose at Julius and elbowed him in the ribs.

"Hey, what was that for?" he complained, rubbing his side.

Anna folded her hands together on the table and flashed her most winning smile at Edward. "As you can see, Edward, we've spent so many hours on the train together, we're starting to drive each other crazy."

"Don't let her fool you with that smile," Julius said warningly. He plunked his elbow on the table and propped his head up against his hand. "She's not the one being driven crazy."

"So we thought we'd go around and meet the other passengers," she continued, as if there had been no interruption. "And since there's hardly anyone else around who's our age, we thought we would keep you company." Then she added, rather belatedly, "If you don't mind, that is."

"No, I don't mind," Edward replied, and he appeared mildly amused. "It's kind of nice to have someone to talk to."

I was right, after all, Anna thought. He's not used to traveling alone.

Julius tapped his cheek with his forefinger as he curiously eyed the other boy's crippled hand. "So…what did you do to your hand?" he asked.

There was an awkward silence as Edward looked down at his gloved hand without responding. Anna rounded on her brother. "Julius! Don't be insensitive!" she scolded.

"Oh, sorry," Julius said, apologetically raking his bangs out of his face, only to have them fall right back in place. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I didn't mean to pry."

"No, it's all right," Edward said, and slid his right arm under the table, as though trying to hide it from view. Anna heard the soft click of metal moving on metal, like the sound made by the wind-up mechanical dolls she played with when she was a young girl. "It's a long story, and you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Julius looked as though he wanted to pursue this line of conversation, but backed down after Anna shot him a warning glance. "Where are you from, Edward?" his sister asked, changing the subject.

"I'm from a place called Rizenbul. It's a really small country town, so you might not have heard of it."

"Oh, I see. Is that in Germany?"

There was an almost imperceptible pause before Edward replied. "Yeah."

Something terrible must have happened there during the war, she thought, and decided it was time to change the subject again. "We're from Germany too, me and Julius," she said brightly. "But we moved to Transylvania a few years ago. Father used to be a professor at the University of Munich, but after the war ended, the economy was so bad that we had to leave. Our mother's originally from Romania, and since it was one of the Allies during the Great World War, we had a place to go to."

"Besides, Mother's descended from a long line of counts and countesses in Transylvania when it was still its own kingdom, so we're pretty rich," Julius added proudly. "And since she's royalty, that makes us royalty, too."

Sighing, Anna dismissively waved a hand at her brother. "Don't mind him, he always gets like this whenever the subject of Mother's ancestry comes up. Which, according to him, is all the time."

"Come on, sis. Don't be ashamed of your heritage!"

"Whatever, you big-headed dolt. I doubt Edward's very interested in hearing about it."

"All right, be that way," Julius said sulkily, and then turned his attention again to the blond boy. "Anyway, where are you traveling to?"

"Oh, I'm going to Hermannstadt, in Transylvania. I think the Romanians call it Sibiu, though."

"Hey, that's the city where we live!" Anna interjected enthusiastically. "And we're German, like you, so we call it Hermannstadt all the time. So what brings you all the way to Hermannstadt?"

"I'm looking for someone named Hermann Oberth. He's a physics student at the University of Munich, but he's visiting home for the summer."

"'Looking for'? You mean you've never actually met this guy?" Julius asked, incredulous.

"Yeah. I heard about him when I was in Munich, so I decided to look him up."

"What's so urgent that you have to come all this way to see him? Can't you just wait until he gets back to school?"

"He's researching how to fly into space, and I wanted to—" Edward began to say, but broke off when Julius whooped with laughter.

"You want to…fly…into space?" Julius was laughing so hard, it was a wonder he was able to speak at all. "That's…that's crazy talk… Flying into…outer space…"

It was times like these that made Anna wonder what kept her from throttling her brother. This Edward boy may be a bit strange, but he sounded so earnest and looked so mortified that her heart went out to him. Besides, she didn't come over here to make him feel bad. So she settled for slapping her brother on the side of the head.

"Ouch! Jeez, Anna, what's your problem?"

"Space flight is an entirely realistic possibility," she said primly. "People thirty years ago would have laughed at us if we told them that humans could fly."

Julius gaped at her as if she were speaking a foreign language. "What the—? Tch, like you know what you're talking about."

"More than you, brother. At least I'm a scientist," she said, and sat up straighter, haughtily turning her nose up at her brother.

"You're a scientist?" Edward asked, sounding more interested in this than anything else that had been said that evening.

"That's right. Father is a professor of biology, and Mother helps him with his research. I also know a thing or two about biology, myself."

"You mean Father lets you putter around the lab as long as you feed the mice and clean the cages," Julius said patronizingly. "You're not a scientist…you're just a fourteen-year-old kid who plays with animals."

Anna felt the heat rise in her face as her brother openly mocked the dream that she secretly held most dear. In front of a perfect stranger, no less. "At least I'm not going to spend the rest of my life filling out useless paperwork," she snapped. "I'll never be a dog of the government, like you were."

Her brother fell silent, and Anna realized that she had gone too far. The heat in her cheeks was from shame, now. She snuck a glance at Edward, who looked like he wished he was anywhere else. "Julius…" she began.

Thrusting a hand into his vest pocket, Julius pulled out his watch and flipped it open. "Well, look at the time. I'd better get to bed, so I'll be well-rested tomorrow when I look for a job to be the dog of another government." He got to his feet without looking at either of them. "Since that's all I'm good for, apparently."

As he left the compartment for the sleeping quarters, the door swung shut behind him with a slam that jarred the silence that now filled the car. Anna's brain worked furiously to come up with a way to smooth over this embarrassing exchange, but the only coherent thought she had was how humiliated she felt and how she had made fools of them all. Julius shouldn't have made fun of her in the first place, but she shouldn't have said what she knew would hurt him deeply. And with Edward as an unwilling third party observer to their spat.

In the end, all she could say was, "I'm sorry. I know how we must seem to you, but we're not usually like this. We…our family has been through a lot in the war."

"It's all right. I think I can relate," Edward replied, with unexpected sympathy.

To her surprise, her face began to feel warm again and she was forced to blink back tears, as though this stranger's words released something inside of her that had been bottled up for too long. She got up and adjusted her hat, and in the most normal-sounding voice she could muster, she said, "I'd better go and see if Julius is ok." There was a pause as she fought to compose herself. "Thank you," she added. Though what exactly she was thanking him for, she wasn't sure. With a rustle of skirts, she hurried after her brother.