Phew! I finally got a bit of inspiration last night, and I wrote this chapter up. Heh, yes, I know, I'm kind of weird...but wait, does that surprise you? It shouldn't if you're an avid follower of my fics, heh.

And no, I don't have leprecauns...at least, I don't think so...nope, don't have them. Well...my socks do disappear all the time...but I don't have leprecauns!

Ed: How do you know that you don't have them? Everything is real, after all.

Me: Are you saying that I do have leprecauns?

Ed: Reality is what you make of it.

Me: Oh, what do you know? (Grabs a pillow and throws it at Ed, only to have it pass through him and hit the wall.)

Okay, that was random. I think that only Sakura-chan will even get it, hehe. (Waves to Sakura-chan) No, Sakura, I didn't throw an actual pillow, hehe, I just knew you were going to ask that. (Snicker)

Disclaimer: I own myself, does that count? Oh wait...I'm not the Fullmetal Alchemist...so I guess it doesn't. Sigh. Oh well. Enjoy the story anyway.

I placed my hand on the back of the chair that my mistress was sitting in and gripped it until it started to hurt. That...couldn't be...it just couldn't be her...could it? I unconsciously stood up on my tiptoes to get a better look as I eagerly waited for them to get close enough to see. My mistress noticed this, and gently placed her arm across my chest to warn me to calm down. I took the hint and relaxed my stance, but kept my gaze fixed upon the girl.

Finally, the man arrived at the table and sat down across from my mistress, leaving the girl to stand behind him...which gave me a better chance to see her. Our eyes locked and my jaw dropped wide open, as I took an unconscious step towards her. Again, I felt my mistress place her arm across my chest. I once again took the hint and stepped back, never taking my eyes off of the girl before me.

I waited until her master wasn't looking in my direction, and then I silently mouthed the word, "Winry" to the girl. I just had to see if it was indeed the person I thought it was. A timid smile spread across her face for a second, though it vanished as soon as my mistress looked up. That was enough to convince me though. It was her...Winry.

I stared at her without blinking it seemed for several minutes straight. I just couldn't believe that I was finally seeing her again. It was too unreal. Somehow, I was afraid that if I took my eyes off of her, even for a second, that she would just fade from my sight forever. Her eyes seemed to plead with me to take her with me. I finally turned my head away. It hurt too much to look into those pain-filled pleading eyes.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally noticed my mistress and her master stand up and shake hands. Had the transaction taken place, or was everything simply going back to the way it was? I watched with bated breath as the man nodded to my mistress, and then turned around...and left...without Winry. She'd succeeded? My mistress had succeeded?

I turned to look at my mistress. She was now looking at me, and was smiling. She raised her hands to sign to me. "I-lucky-this-time. Man-want-sell. I-come-buy. Finish. Easy."

I nodded my understanding at her, but didn't sign anything back. I was still too spellbound by the whole incident to think straight, so my mistress turned her attention to Winry. "So...miss...?"

"Winry, Ma'am," said Winry with an overly zealous bow in addition to her words. Obviously, she was nervous. I couldn't blame her though, since there weren't many kind slave owners out there.

My mistress smiled. "Winry...no need to be so formal around me, dear, I won't hurt you."

"Yes'm," replied Winry with the same overzealous bow, sending a chuckle to both me and my mistress. It would take her a little while to unwind, obviously.

"So," said my mistress, "I gather that you know Edward?" Winry nodded, but didn't say anything more. I couldn't blame her for that. If there was one thing I'd learned in all my time as a slave, it was not to say anything more than was absolutely necessary. As smart as Winry was, I'm sure that she'd managed to figure that out as well.

"I think that's wonderful," said my mistress, "That he can get his auto-mail repaired by someone he knows."

At the mention of auto-mail, Winry kind of snapped out of her trance and ran over to me. "Repaired? What's wrong with his auto-mail? What did you do to ruin it, Edward?..." I couldn't make out anything else that she was saying, because she was just speaking much too fast. She apparently hadn't caught on yet to the fact that I was deaf. Nevertheless, she already had my auto-mail in her hands and was turning it this way and that in order to inspect it, continuing to rant about something or other, which I still wasn't catching on to.

Finally, my mistress came and interrupted our little introduction...or rather, Winry's introduction to my auto-mail, since I hadn't said a word the whole time, and told us to get into the carriage, so that we could go home. We did so, and before long, we were back at the mansion.

We walked through the hallways to get back to my room in order to show Winry where to find me. At some point, Winry apparently had started talking to me without getting a response, so she started getting more emphatic with me. "Edward, why won't you talk to me?...Edward?...Edward!" She grabbed me and spun me around to look into her face, which left a bewildered look on my face, since I couldn't imagine what I'd done to deserve that...though, since it was Winry, it could have been any reason at all, since her fuse is a bit short.

My mistress walked up and put a hand on Winry's shoulder. "He's not ignoring you, dear. We'll explain when we get to his room, okay?" Winry nodded and let go of my shirt.

The rest of the walk went without incident, as we finally reached my room. Winry's mouth opened in awe. "Edward...this is...YOUR room?" I understood why she was so perplexed. After all, I was supposed to be a slave and have an ordinary slave's quarters, not a decent room to sleep in with everything I needed provided for me.

"Yes, this is my room," I said.

Winry gave me one of those glances that I hated seeing on her as she said, "Edward, what's wrong with your voice? What are you not telling me?" Oh, right, my voice didn't sound normal, did it? Now that I'd been learning and using sign language more often than speaking, it probably sounded even more off than before.

"Um...you might want to sit down, Winry." I pulled up a chair and motioned for her to sit, which she did. I took a deep breath, not knowing what to say. I quickly signed to my mistress asking her for help, but all she said was to say whatever was on my mind. Like that helped much.

Winry finally noticed the sign language transference between us, and said, "Wait, is that...sign language? Why are you...oh no, no...not...oh, poor Edward!" She buried her face in her hands. She had caught the message without my having to say anything.

I placed my hand on her shoulder, and said, "Winry, it's okay...please don't cry." She shook her head and mumbled something which I couldn't decipher since she didn't look up. "I need to see your face to know what you're saying, Winry."

She sobbed once more, and then looked up to face me. Somehow, seeing her tear-stained face was even worse than seeing her hide her face in her hands. I felt a knot tie in my stomach. This was all my fault. It had to be. Why does it seem like I'm always hurting the people I love?

"I was saying first that you just couldn't be deaf...but then I started asking how it happened," said Winry. I breathed out a sigh of relief. She was coming around sooner than I thought she would.

I locked my gaze with hers as I pondered how to word my story. I would have to tell her the entire story from when I first met my current mistress until the present in order to give her an accurate picture of what happened. I took a deep breath, and began. "It all started one day when my former master sent me to the market..."

"...And that's why I'm here now," I finished. Winry sat silent for a moment, deep in thought. I wasn't sure whether I should disturb her thinking and talk with her, or if I should just let her be, so I hesitated for a moment.

She didn't keep me pondering what to do for long though. "So...you haven't found out what to do to get Al out of there yet?"

I shook my head. "No, and I've mulled over every possibility in my mind that I could think of. Nothing that I've come up with would work. Even if I were to abduct him, his master would know where to look."

Winry snapped her fingers. "That's it! We could kidnap Al...but do so in a way that neither he nor his master knows who did it...and leave clues leading in the wrong direction!" All she got from me was a blank stare, so she continued her explanation. "Think about it...one would think that if it were his brother abducting him, that he would just come along without a fight, right?" I nodded. "Well, if he didn't know it was us, then he WOULD put up a fight, which would convince everyone, even the fellow slaves, that it was someone totally different."

I thought on that for a moment. Hmmm...interesting idea. "But...what would we leave as clues to convince them that we weren't coming to save my brother?"

Winry thought for another moment, and then snapped her fingers. "We could 'accidentally' drop a piece of paper with a transmutation circle on it. He knows that Al does alchemy, doesn't he?"

I shook my head. "No, at least, I hope not. He knows that I do alchemy though."

Winry nodded. "Well, he should be able to put two and two together with just that knowledge. Think about it...slaves that know alchemy are few and far between, since the masters tend to exploit them until they wear them out, and they die. It's logical to think that if someone were to find out that Al was capable of doing alchemy, that they'd try to break in and steal him."

She had a point. It might actually be worth a try. "So," I said, looking directly at her, "Do you have a plan?"

She smirked in her sinister way as she whipped a wrench out of her pocket. "I'll tell you while I fix your auto-mail."

I stepped outside into the fresh air and flexed my new auto-mail arm. I couldn't actually feel it, but it felt good, all the same. I turned to look as Winry and my mistress walked up behind me. "So, are you really going to go through with this?" asked my mistress.

"Yes, I have to get my little brother out of there. Leaving him alone with that man is not an option. He's already weak, and if he ever discovers that Al can do alchemy..." My voice trailed off. I didn't really need to finish the sentence anyway, since everyone understood quite well what I meant.

"Well," said my mistress, "Just be careful not to get yourselves caught, and whatever you do, don't let the incident get traced back to here." I nodded my understanding to her, so she just turned and left.

Winry stood aghast for several moments before she finally said, "So, she's not even going to try and stop us?"

I shook my head. "She doesn't believe in slaves. She never tells us what to do. She only buys slaves to keep them safe from other masters. That's why I so badly want Al to come here, where it's safe."

Winry nodded, seemingly impressed. I have to admit though, I was still quite impressed by the whole thing myself. "Well," she said, "We'd better not waste any time then. Let's gather some more people for our crew. We'll need as much help as we can get." With that, she turned and ran off, and left me to chase after her.

That night, our little group was assembling our gear and briefing each other on the mission in the living room. Winry and I had both put our hair up and covered our entire faces with masks, as well as covering every other square inch of our bodies. We were both Amestrian...we couldn't let that fact be known by anyone involved, except for those of our group. I wandered around the room, helping others to assemble themselves, since most of those going were also Amestrian, though there were a few Drachman people coming along who supported our cause. Those people didn't need to cover themselves up as much...only enough to conceal their identities.

"Okay," I said, looking around the room, "Are we all ready?" A wide sea of nods floated my way. I smiled. This would be my first time ever of leading a group. I couldn't blow this mission. "Great. Let's go." I stepped out the door with the whole crowd right behind me.

We promptly climbed aboard several carriages that my mistress owned that she was allowing us to use as long as we disguised them so that no one would recognize them as hers, and we made off towards my previous residence.

Before long, we arrived at the plantation. Leaving the carriages on the road so as not to be heard from pulling into the long driveway, we hopped off and made our way quietly down to the various slave shacks. I wasn't exactly sure where they were keeping Al now that he wasn't a new slave anymore, but I had to at least try to find him, and do so without getting any of us caught. I was the only one on the team that knew my way around this property, so it was up to me to figure this out.

I made my way around the various slave shacks, even checking in the one that I had previously lived in, but to no avail. He wasn't anywhere. He had to be somewhere though, but where?

I was just meandering around now, since I didn't know where I was supposed to look. I almost forgot to keep my cover, since slaves weren't supposed to be up and about at night, but I managed to escape detection all the same. It was a good thing that me and everyone else in my party were wearing black.

Suddenly I looked up and saw that prophetic boy's sister run off somewhere. I quickly motioned to those in my party to follow quietly as I followed her. As I followed her up the hill, I suddenly knew where she was going. She must've run away again...and consequently, got stuck in the shack. I smacked myself in the head for not thinking of that. If Al had been caught sneaking off that one day...well, he very well might have been stuck in the shack too.

The little girl ran into the shack, so I made my way up to it and pressed my face against the outside wall. This particular shack had so many holes in the wall that if the moon were fairly low in the sky, and bright, like it was tonight, that one could actually see into the shack without turning on any light by looking through the holes.

I peered into the shack. It was really well lit on this particular night, so I could see quite clearly for not having any external form of lighting. There were a lot of people staying here this time. That was good, actually...the more witnesses, the better. If we could fool them, we could fool the master. Now...the simple trick was locating Al so that we could make an appropriate getaway. I squinted my eyes and looked again. There! There he was over in the far corner!

I pulled my face away from the wall, and made some hand motions to those in my group explaining where Al was. None of them actually spoke sign language, but we had devised a simple hand gesture system before we'd embarked on this mission so that none of us would betray ourselves with our speech. After all, most of us were Amestrian, and therefore, had an Amestrian accent.

I made one final hand gesture, telling everyone to go, and just like that, everyone scattered in different directions, all according to plan. I then turned and made my way over to the side of the shack where Al was sleeping. I wanted to help in any way I could with this escape.

I reached that particular spot, and then quietly opened the door. I waited a moment to see if anyone had noticed our intrusion, but no one had. I gave the signal indicating that those involved in this part of the mission were free to act. They barged in, not worrying about whether they made noise or not anymore, since we needed witnesses, after all.

Everyone in the shack woke up immediately, and some of them started scrambling to their feet. We had to act fast before Al's reaction time kicked in. One of the group pulled out a large burlap sack and threw it over Al before he had even completely sat up. At this, he started kicking and flailing. This was the reaction that we'd wanted...though a pang of guilt coursed through my body at the sight of his utter terror of the moment. It would soon be over though, we just had to pull this off.

The man tried to cinch up the sack Al was in, but Al was much better at wriggling around than I had thought, making it near impossible just to keep him in the sack, let alone cinch it up. I reached into my pockets and produced some cords that I had brought along just in case they would be needed to tie anything up, though I hadn't expected that I'd need to use them on Al. That sent another pang up guilt through me. I was tying up my own little brother.

I rushed over to where Al was and showed those in my group the cords I had. One man nodded to me, and then mounted Al, sitting on him in other words, yet managing to keep him in the sack at the same time. That was all the better, I supposed.

I took one of the cords and delicately tied it around Al's upper arms and chest. Another one went around his wrists and thighs, and yet a third one went around his ankles. That sufficiently stopped the wriggling, so the man who had initially bagged him was finally able to cinch it up and throw him over his shoulder. We were ready to make our getaway.

However, those in the shack weren't quite so ready to let us run off with their little friend. We could have been murderers, for all they knew, so they moved into our way to block our exit. Some of them were even so daring as to try and get near us and take us on themselves.

I ran over to the wall and knocked out a simple code that we had devised earlier. Suddenly, the room exploded with the presence of the rest of my group, sending those in the shack into utter shock. While they held the confused slaves back, those of us with Al turned and proceeded to attempt a getaway.

Just then, the little girl ran up to me and grabbed my arm. "Don't do this!" She screamed. "Please, don't hurt him! Please!" Her cries were getting louder and louder. If we weren't careful, one of the guards further down the property would end up hearing her, and then we would be done for, but I couldn't pull my arm out of her grasp.

One of the men from my group then ran up and smacked a hard blow to the back of her head. She fell limp at my feet. Irate, I began signing frantically using very angry words and expressions. He didn't know sign language, but he caught the gist just the same. One just doesn't go and knock out little girls.

Shrugging and mouthing "Sorry", he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. I sighed and shrugged, since there really wasn't anything that could be done about it now, and motioned for everyone to get out of the shack. Everyone nodded and followed procedure as I stood by to make sure that Al and that little girl were taken out safely.

After the rest of the group was out, I quickly glanced around and saw that Winry was still in the room with me. She nodded to me, and then pulled out a few choice pieces of paper as well as other items and dropped them on the floor in as inconspicuous a way as possible, and then left the room. I then followed suit.

We managed to get back to the carriages without detection, except for by a few slaves, which was good since we needed witnesses, and we all assembled back onto them and drove off faster than anything.

I was sitting up front with the driver, and the sack containing Al had been placed between the driver and myself. Things were fine until we were about halfway back to the plantation where Winry and I lived. Al began wriggling again, and it was causing the driver to have a bit of difficulty with keeping the horses under control. I sighed. Something had to be done, and fast. Perhaps this was the time to tell Al the truth.

I reached over and undid the cords that I had so carefully tied up just a few minutes before. With bated breath, I released the drawstring on the bag. It fell open onto Al's lap. I smiled for a second as I saw my little brother, free for the first time...if he would accept his fate and not run off before we got the chance to tell him anything.

Al was looking around nervously, trying to figure out where he was. I knew that he was just about ready to jump off the wagon, and I had to prevent that at all costs, especially considering what we had all just gone through in order to save him.

I reached up for my mask, but had to quickly bring my hand back down in order to grab Al as he was about to jump over the driver to get out of the carriage. Darn it, Al, just give me a little time here! I forcefully sat him back in his seat, and then grabbed him by both of his shoulders and turned him to look at me.

I once again reached for my mask. This time, Al didn't jump away. Apparently, there must've been something about the way I had held him for that second that made him realize that he should just wait and see what was going to happen.

I finally got a good hold of my mask, and with a sharp yank, I pulled it off. My blonde hair spilled out over my shoulders, and Al gasped. Whether he instantly recognized me or not wasn't quite clear, but one thing he could tell immediately from the color of my hair was that I was indeed a fellow Amestrian.

I looked up into Al's face, and his eyes met mine. He appeared to be too shocked for words, but finally managed to mouth one word, "Brother". We threw our arms around each other and cried into the other's shoulder. It was so good to finally be reunited, even after that whole ordeal that we had put him through.

"Hey, that's not fair to let Ed have all the attention, I want some too!" I hadn't heard that comment, but apparently Al had, and he looked up behind us to find the source of the voice. Someone dressed in black appeared over the top of the carriage, and pulled off their mask, revealing her own blonde hair.

"Winry!" Al mouthed excitedly. He still couldn't speak, but he certainly knew how to mouth words. Winry smiled as she reached her hands down to us, prompting us to reach ours up to hers. We locked our hands together, forming a perfect circle between us. Inspiration suddenly hit me like a gunshot.

"Never again will be be separated," I said. "Let us not let anyone break our perfect circle of friendship, and anyone that does will die trying." The other two nodded, apparently surprised that such a thing had come out of my mouth. I was a little surprised too for that matter, but I just couldn't let that moment pass without acknowledging the significance of the moment when the three of us had finally be reunited for the first time since this whole ordeal had begun.

Never again will we be separated. Never again will anything come between us. The circle will not be broken.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed that chapter. Leave me some good reviews in order to convince RR-Major-Ed-Pride to update, okay? A lot of reviews might even convince her to update sooner than last time, hehe. Please review!