Roy Mustang sat at his desk, wondering when the Elric brothers were going to be back from their latest mission. Riza sat at the desk next to his, cleaning her weapons. 'At least she has something to do' thought Roy. He simply gave out orders, and currently he had noone to give orders to. With the Elric brothers gone and his younger sister Risika off running some routine errands, he had absolutely noone to boss around. So he was currently extremely bored.

Suddenly, he was brought to attention when he heard someone enter. Not knowing whether it was someone above or below him, he immediately jumped to his feet, hoping that it wasn't the brigadier general.

Maes Hughes walked in and saluted. Roy saluted back, annoyed that he had wasted his energy getting up for someone of a lower rank than himself. "Colonel" he said "I would like to introduce you to my niece, Aurora". As he said this, a girl walked in.

At first, Roy was very surprised: while Hughes talked about his wife and daughter nearly constantly, he had never mentioned any other family. Roy looked at the girl, who seemed very nervous. She was very pretty, with large bright blue eyes and long brown hair that was pulled back into a long braid that hung down nearly to her waist. She was wearing a pink knee length skirt and a pink sweater. She looked to be about 17 or 18, the age of his sister.

"It's a pleasure to meet you sir"she said politely, and a bit timidly, dropping into a slight curtsy. Surprised, Roy did the only thing that he could think of and saluted the girl.

"Aurora is staying with Gracia and I for a while, so I decided to bring her here to meet everyone. Of course, most of the time she'll be at home with Gracia and Elysia... isn't Elysia just so adorable? I love her soooo much..." As Hughes gushed on about his daughter, Roy noticed that the girl had a smile on her face, as though she was trying to stifle a giggle.

At that moment, the door opened and a girl of about the same age as Aurora walked in, although she looked much different than her. She was wearing the same State Alchemist uniform as the other people in the room. Her curly brown hair was held back in a pony tail and her brown eyes showed behind square black glasses. She saluted Roy and Hughes and Riza and then turned to the new girl with a puzzled look.

"Who's this" she asked her brother.

Aurora stepped forward and extended her hand "Hello" she said "I'm Aurora". Risika shook her hand as she looked at the new girl, who was pretty much her opposite. While this girl obviously had impeccable manners and dressed like she was a princess, Risika preferred to dress in black and, after spending so much of her life around all the military officers, was less than perfect when it came to etiquette.

"Hi" she replied with a curt smile.

"Well, we'd best be getting back to the house" said Hughes and saluted. Aurora nodded and said "Pleased to meet you all" in her sweet and quiet voice and followed Hughes out of the building.

Riza stood up from where she had been sitting in the background observing. "Well, I wonder where she came from. I wonder if she's directly related to Hughes or Gracia? Oh well, she seems nice enough".

"Seems like a princess or something if you ask me" muttered Risika, who wasn't so fond of that idea. She herself was rather a bit of a tomboy, and this girl seemed like the most girly girl she'd ever seen. 'Well, I wont judge her until I get to know her better' thought Risika, even though she didn't seem like the type of girl she would be friends with.

"Well, we'll need to be nice and polite to her when she's around, although Hughes said she'd be at their house most of the time." said Roy. "Come on Risika, lets go home for the night"

Aurora walked behind her uncle, following him back to his house, a place she hadn't been since she was 6 years old. She had just arrived that afternoon on the train, and they had gone directly to the base. Now they were heading to her new home. She was quite apprehensive, having not seen her Aunt in 12 years and having never met her young cousin. She didn't know what to expect; she only knew that this was the only family she had left.

As they mounted the steps to the Hughes home, Gracia opened the door, holding a small girl. "Hello Aurora!" She said as she walked out of the house "It's so good to see you again! It's been so long! This is Elysia, our daughter" she said. Elysia looked up from her mother's shoulder. Aurora smiled at her and said "Hello Elysia! We've never met, but I'm your cousin, Aurora". Elysia hid her face again, a shy little girl. Aurora smiled, having had a lot of experience with children: back at home, she had helped many mothers take care of their children whenever she wasn't in school.

"Come Aurora, you must be tired" said Maes, "I'll show you to your room and you can rest"

"Thank you" said Aurora, grateful, as she was indeed tired form her long journey.

As soon as Aurora entered the room and thanked her aunt and uncle, she ran to her bed and burst into tears. While all the people that she had met here in Central were very nice and she liked them very much, it was still very hard for her. After all, her parents had just died.

They had been in the east, her parents working as teachers. Aurora had been going to school, and helping the mothers in the neighborhood watch their children; it had been a nice life.

However, things got complicated with the war, and deaths occurred. It was only luck that had saved Aurora. She had been out playing with a group of children while their mothers made dinner. When she returned, her home was burned to the ground, and her parents had been in it. As her parents were dead, she was sent to live with her only living relatives, the Hughes's, who lived in Central. Fortunately for her, they had been only too happy to take her in, but she knew her journey was just beginning.