How to Get What You Work For

by PurpleTurtle21

After a friend attempts to perform alchemy from one of her favorite anime shows, Amelia finds herself on military property and about to go to prison for trespassing, until the Fuehrer offers her a chance: She gets a one-year trial period learning under a certified alchemist and if she passes, she gets a get-out-of-jail-free card. Now if she could only find someone to teach her…

11. Repairs

"Every successful individual

knows that his or her achievement

depends on a community of persons

working together."

-Paul Ryan

---

A few more hours of travelling, and they had soon arrived at their station. Amelia looked out over their environment, seeing nothing but simple houses and farms, and plenty of rolling fields. It looked like the town didn't have even so much as a paved road, everything was just dirt roads. She figured driving on cars was hellish on that road, but as she looked around, she wondered if anyone around even had a car. Amelia stepped off the train after Edward, watching her teacher duck down the door and move as carefully as possible so he could carry Alphonse out of the train station. The sun was shining bright over the grassy landscape, and Amelia felt that she could see a lot of the place here. But one thing that bothered her was how quiet it was, she was used to the sounds of cars, cities, all the noise that came with Central. Here, there was hardly any noise except for some birds and the far-off bleats of sheep.

"We are way out in the country." She said as she looked around.

"Yeah, Resembool's always been like that," Edward said as he picked up his suitcase and moved it over his shoulder. The Major carried his own things, with Amelia doing the same. "Nice and rural."

Amelia didn't say anything as they walked down the path, looking out over the hills, seeing that each house had quite a distance between properties, each one seemed to have its own little hill. "Is it just farms out here?"

"Mostly," Edward said, "Lots of livestock and gardening, but there are some other people around, too. Some doctors, and if you go far enough west you'll find a little town with a market place in it, but it takes a while to get there if you don't have a car or a horse." Amelia grimaced a little at the news that they still rode horses to get around. "But we also have automail engineers out here, and they kind of work part-time as doctors for just some basic needs."

"Huh," was Amelia's only response.

"It's been a while since we've been back." Alphonse said, "A few years, I think."

"Yeah," Edward agreed, "I think it's been about… three or four years now, hasn't it?"

"You haven't returned to your home town in four years?" Armstrong asked, a little surprised at the news.

"Well, there's not really anything to return to." Edward said, he moved his suitcase off his shoulder, "That's where we're headed," He pointed to a yellow house at the top of a hill about half a mile away, "They're never too far from the train station." Amelia would disagree, but she didn't really like the idea of walking that far.

"So how long do you think it'll take for them to fix up your stuff?" Amelia asked, and Edward shrugged.

"Knowing them… it might be a week or so." He said, and Amelia frowned.

"Seriously? I'm going to be stuck with you for a whole week?" Edward looked back over his shoulder with a scowl of his own.

"Believe me, I'm not happy about it either." Amelia glared at him and he glared back.

The major cleared his throat and the two of them separated as he walked between them, continuing their trek up the hill. "I thought you'd want to get out of here as soon as possible." Amelia said, "What with the library thing you found out."

"I know, that's why I'm going to ask them to finish as quickly as they can." Edward said.

Amelia jumped when she heard a dog barking and watched as one came charging down the road to them. It was a big, black furred dog, and her mind immediately thought of a Doberman. She let out a yelp and hid behind the Major, who stopped and looked back at her when he saw her doing that, and then ahead when the dog caught up to Edward, who only smiled and laughed at the excited mutt that jumped around him, his automail paw clanking against the dirt. "It's good to see you, too, Den!" He put his suitcase down for a second to pet the dog, who happily jumped up to try and lick his face. He played with him a little, and Amelia peeked her head out from behind the major to get a look.

She could see it wasn't the Doberman she thought it was, but she still stayed behind the larger man. "Miss Seymour, are you alright?" Armstrong asked, looking down at her.

"I'm fine." She said curtly.

She stiffened when the dog looked their way, and hid behind the major again as Den came up to sniff him, and around to see Amelia. She started to slowly move back from him, going around the major, only for Den to curiously follow.

"No… No." She said, trying to put some space between her and the dog, "Shoo! Go away! Shoo!" She tried to wave it off, keeping her suitcase up in front of her like a barrier between her and the dog. "No, bad dog. Shoo!"

"What's with you?" Edward asked, "Den's a good dog, he won't bite or anything."

"Oh, sure, that's what you say now." Amelia grumbled, and she let out a yelp when Den barked at her and she tried to hide behind the major again. Den, thinking she was playing a game, started to chase after her, "Jesus Christ!" She ran over the waist-high stone wall on the side of the road, and Den followed her, though he wasn't big enough to jump over the wall like she had, and she still hid behind her suitcase.

Edward couldn't help laughing, "Are you scared of dogs?"

"Shut up!" Amelia growled at Edward as he only started laughing harder, her cheeks burning a bright shade of red. "It's not funny! You know how vicious dogs can be?!"

Edward only laughed harder. "You're afraid of dogs!"

"I said, shut up!" Amelia snapped, still keeping behind her suitcase on the wall as Den jumped up to try and lick at her face, "No! Go away! Bad dog!" She dashed forward on the grassy field to avoid him, shoving her suitcase at him to try and get him to go back, and he did get down, though he still looked up at her eagerly, tail wagging as he stared at her, thinking he had found a new playmate. Edward couldn't help laughing at the sight of her afraid of a dog like Den, who he knew was nothing but sweet. Amelia didn't say anything as she looked down at the dog, clearly not happy that she had to stay on that side of the wall as she kept walking, her guard constantly up, her cheeks still bright red in shame as Edward kept laughing.

"Okay, Den. Come here, boy." Edward said, calling the dog as he calmed down, and he happily came over to Edward's side. Amelia still stayed on the other side of the wall, "It's not really safe for you to be over there, you know. That's where the Jensen's keep their bull."

"Bull?" She looked behind her, and she could see a sleeping cow with rather massive horns about two hundred feet away, and she carefully climbed back over the wall, making sure not to get the attention of either the bull or of Den as she walked behind the Major, still keeping her eyes on Den and her suitcase up as a shield.

As they got closer to the house, Amelia noticed a tiny older woman making her way out of the house with a pipe in her mouth. She smiled at the sight of the group coming forward and turned back to the house to shout at the open window on the second floor, "Winry?" When she didn't get a response, she called again, "Winry! Our best customer's here!"

"Yo, Granny!" Edward greeted the older woman as she made her way down the stairs of her front porch.

"We're home!" Alphonse said cheerily as they came up to the edge of the property line.

"Oh, dear, what have you done now?" The woman asked exasperatedly as she saw Alphonse in the crate and Edward missing an arm.

"A lot has happened," Edward said with a chuckle, "Can you fix us up?"

"And who's this you've brought with you?" She asked, looking up at the major and Amelia as they walked.

Armstrong put down the crate that carried Alphonse, and Den went up to it, happily greeting the armor he recognized with a few licks over the metal face. The major reached for the older woman's hand to shake it, "This is Major Alex Louis Armstrong," Edward introduced him, "And this is his student Amelia Seymour."

"I'm Pinako Rockbell." The woman introduced herself, pulling away from Armstrong to shake Amelia's hand, which she did, though she kept a wary glance on Den. Pinako noticed and chuckled, "Oh, don't worry about him. Den's a good dog, he won't hurt you." Amelia only mumbled out a response that no one really understood, and Pinako chose to leave it alone. She stepped back a bit as she looked at Edward, "I know I haven't seen you for a while, Ed, but you've gone and grown smaller."

It was all Edward could do to bite back his tongue as he glared down at the older woman, "Granny, you've got it wrong, you're supposed to say 'How big you've grown lately, Ed!'" He said, forcing a smile on his face though it hardly did anything to hold back his anger.

With a straight face, the woman replied, "But why would I say something so clearly untrue?"

"I'M STILL TALLER THAN YOU, YOU MINI-HAG!" Edward snapped at her. He was going to continue, when a wrench came flying out of nowhere and got him in the shoulder, forcing him down onto the ground.

"Jesus!" Amelia jumped back a little as she looked down at Edward.

"Edward, I thought I told you to call first when you're heading back here for maintenance!" A voice called to him, and Amelia looked up to see a girl on the second floor of the house, who must have thrown the wrench.

"Winry! Are you trying to kill me?!" Edward shouted back at her.

Winry only laughed in response at first, and then she beamed at them, "Welcome back!"

"Yeah…" Edward grumbled, straightening up a little from where he sat. Amelia looked over at Pinako, who only took a long drag from her pipe as if this was all normal. She was a little surprised at how all of this was considered 'normal' but she supposed she wasn't from this family, so she wouldn't really know.

"Let's get you inside and get a look at you." Pinako said, and Armstrong went to pick up Alphonse again as Edward walked in with Pinako, Amelia following after them in the hopes of putting some distance between her and Den.

Of course, Den followed everyone inside and Amelia went to take a seat on a couch, still keeping her suitcase up to make sure Den didn't get too close as the dog came inside, but went straight to the kitchen after Pinako, who came back with a tray of tea.

Winry came bounding down the stairs to see the two boys, still smiling brightly, "I hope you've been keeping the arm I gave you in good condition." She looked down at the empty sleeve on his coat, "Where is it, anyway?"

"Well, that's kind of why we're here." Edward went to his suitcase, opening it up and handing Winry a white sack, "Here you go." Winry took it and went over to the table to unwrap it.

"Here, Ed," Pinako said as Edward started to take off his coat, handing him a cup as she went to look at the empty arm port.

"Oh, thanks," Edward said as he took it. Amelia took a cup for herself, blowing over the steaming liquid before she took a stip. It wasn't bad.

"Oh nooo!" Winry cried out in dismay as she looked at what was in the sack, seeing the remains of Ed's automail arm completely destroyed.

"Yeah, sorry, it's a little smashed up," Edward said casually before sipping at his drink.

"A little smashed up? A little?" Winry repeated angrily, "Ed do you see what you've done to my beautiful creation? I slaved over this!"

"It's basically the same, it's just in smaller pieces." Edward replied, only to be met with an infuriated punch from Winry that knocked him on his back like she had done outside. She looked over at the crate that held Alphonse, "Don't tell me, you a little smashed up, too Al? What kind of trouble have you been getting yourselves into?"

Al only let out a hum in response, which made Winry angry enough to kick at his crate and knock him over, the boy letting out a yelp on the way down. "You idiots! All you ever do is worry me!" Winry said with a sigh, placing her hands on her hips as she looked at the two of them, Edward helping his brother to be righted again.

"Well, we just need to get our maintenance done and get out and you won't have to worry about us anymore!" Edward said as he sat on the couch again.

"You can't stay a while?" Pinako said, "It's been a long time since we've seen either of you, and you want to leave just as soon as you got here?" Edward nodded as he looked back at her.

"Al and I finally have a solid clue on how to get our bodies back to normal, and I don't want to spend more time than I have to." He said, and that got Pinako and Winry's attention.

"You have?" Winry asked, her voice sounding hopeful.

"Well, catch us up on it." Pinako said, taking a seat near the couch where Amelia sat, with Armstrong choosing to stand off to the side, "What's so important that you need to leave as soon as possible?"

And Edward explained it to them, with Al helping to further explain some things that Ed left out in his story. He told them how they came across Doctor Marcoh, how he had been a researcher on the philosopher's stone and had told them where to find his research materials so they could work on making a philosopher's stone of their own, but that it was hidden in a massive library where it would be difficult to find it. In the middle of the story, Den came up to Pinako, whining a bit before she told Winry to feed the dog and she went to do that. The dog was happily munching on his lunch by the time Edward had finished his tale.

Pinako tapped her pipe into an ash tray, letting some of it fall out, "All right, I see." She said, "In order to get this information you need to go to Central as soon as possible, am I right?"

"Yeah, this is kind of a rush order." Edward said apologetically. Pinako came around, making a gesture for him to get his feet up as she examined his automail leg.

She let out a small hum as she looked at the difference between Edward's flesh leg and his automail one, "It's not just your arm, your leg needs adjusting too. You've actually grown a couple centimeters it seems."

"Guess your growth's not completely stunted after all," Winry said with a smirk, and Edward glared at her.

"Oh, shut up!" He snapped.

Pinako tapped her pipe on Edward's automail knee, "Leg aside, the shape the arm's in, we'll have to build it from scratch." She said.

"Is there any chance you can have it done in a week?" Edward asked, and Pinako stood up.

"Give us some credit, Ed." She took a drag from her pipe and blew out the smoke with a confident smile, "Three days." She said, and she put the pipe down to take his automail leg off, and Amelia watched as she gave it to Winry who shouldered it before handing her another leg from a bin of spare ones and she put it in place of Edward's old one, "But you'll have to make do with this spare for now."

Edward stood up, and almost lost his balance as he put his weight on the new leg, moving to one side so it was more on his flesh leg, "It's a little difficult to walk on a leg I'm not used to." He said.

"We'll be finished before you get used to it," Pinako promised.

"Three days, huh…?" Winry said, counting off things on her fingers, "Between machining, assembly, connecting, and finishing… that's three all-nighters."

"I'm sorry for all the trouble," Edward said.

Winry turned around with a smile, "Well, you want to get to Central as soon as possible, right? Then I'll work my butt off, for you. But you better believe you're going to pay a fortune in rush order fees!" She made her way upstairs with Edward's old leg, everyone hearing the metal shifting on her shoulder as she went up higher. "I'll get to work on his arm, Granny!"

"All right, I'll take care of his leg!" Pinako shouted back, and coughed once she finished, humming a bit. "Well, I suppose we'll need to get to work, then." She looked over at Armstrong and Amelia, "You two can go ahead and make yourselves at home, if you like."

"Great." Amelia sat back on the couch, pulling out her phone in preparation of treating this little visit like a vacation.

"I'm afraid we can't," Amelia frowned at her teacher's response, glaring up at him, "It simply isn't in the Armstrong tradition to relax in another's home without doing some work for it. Is there anything that you might need done in the time that my student and I are here?"

"Are you kidding me right now?" Amelia muttered to herself, stuffing her phone back into her pocket.

"Well…" Pinako took a moment to think, "I'm not about to turn down free work. If you like, we do need some firewood chopped up, and most of the house could do with some sweeping. It'll get a bit messier now that we'll be working on automail for the next few days."

"Very well!" Armstrong beamed at her in a way that Amelia could swear sparkles were coming from his head, "We shall get to work immediately!" He turned to his student, who still scowled and curled up on the couch to rebel, "Amelia, come and stand to help me chop wood."

"No." She said, knowing she sounded a little petulant as she curled up, wrapping her arms around her legs defiantly. Her teacher frowned, crossing his arms as he went over to her.

"Amelia, stand up so we can work." He said again, and she shook her head.

"She said we could just make ourselves at home." She said, nodding to Pinako, "I'm. Not. Moving." She hugged her legs tighter and glared at him over her knees. "You can't make me move."

"She would probably just break the ax trying to chop wood." Edward joked, and she glared at him.

"You shut your mouth, you little-" She was cut off when someone grabbed the back of her collar and lifted her off the bed, and she couldn't help letting out an "Eep!"

"If you will not come willingly, I will carry you there myself," Armstrong said, holding her out at arm's-length as he carried her outside.

"Oh, come on! Why do you have to be so freakishly strong?!" Amelia whined as he took her out.

---

After many failed attempts at getting an ax into the stumps of wood that Major Armstrong had gotten for her, he decided it was better if Amelia went to sweeping the house instead. It worked out well enough, and she was able to listen to her music as she worked, though she stopped and put it away as she realized the house had very few outlets for electric devices, and she had a limited battery life. She swept the rooms, mostly in silence, not saying much to Pinako as she worked on adjusting the metal leg on a table, keeping everything on a tarp that would make for an easier clean up.

Alphonse was pulled out of his crate with some assistance from Major Armstrong, and they let him be outside instead of stuck inside the box so that he might be more comfortable outside, where a few animals would mistake him for a statue and come close to see him.

She ended up sweeping the living room in silence, moving around the table where Pinako was working as the day went on, hearing the sound of her teacher cutting up wood in the yard (though it wasn't really "cutting" when he was just punching the log and making it splinter. Seriously, why was he so freakishly strong?!). Amelia didn't really do much other than just sweep, leaving the older woman to her work as she watched the dust turn into little piles on the floor.

"So," The older woman's voice got her attention, "You're a student?"

"Um, yeah." She said, straightening up a little, "Major Armstrong is teaching me alchemy."

Pinako let out a small laugh, going back to her leg, "Alchemy. I might've known." She still chuckled to herself and Amelia raised a curious eyebrow.

"Something funny about that?" She asked.

"Just that Edward and Alphonse have talked about alchemy since they were boys." Pinako said, "It figures that when we see them again for the first time in so long, they bring another pair of alchemists." The woman's gaze was focused on the leg, though Amelia couldn't really tell since her spectacles hid her eyes, "Those two boys are incredibly smart, they knew alchemy even from a young age. I suppose that was only proven when they took the alchemy exam and passed."

"Is that so?" She looked back over to the archway to the living room where she could see Alphonse outside, "I bet he was pissed off the whole time he took the test." She said with a small laugh, "It's like the guy is just a ball of anger."

"He does have a bit of a temper." Pinako said, reaching for her screwdriver, "He gets that from his father. I rarely saw it, but he tended to get a bit angry whenever someone called him stupid."

"I didn't know they had a father." She said, having only heard about their mother.

"He left when they were pretty young," Pinako said, "I don't think they were more than four or so at the time. Just up and left without so much as a reason."

Amelia let out a hum, thinking that it might not be best to comment on that. She wasn't really sure what to say, but she did understand what it could be like to have an absent father, though hers was just always working to the point where she rarely saw him. Their father just decided to leave.

She looked up when the door opened, seeing her teacher with armfuls of cut wood, and no shirt. "The wood you requested."

"Oh, thank you," Pinako said without looking up from her work.

"For the love of God, will you please put your shirt on?!" Amelia whined as she looked at her half-naked teacher, "Come on, I don't want to see all that." Pinako looked up, her brows travelling up to her hairline at the sight of the shirtless major, but he did as his student requested, putting the firewood away before he went to get his shirt.

"I haven't seen Edward anywhere around the house in a while." He commented as he pulled his shirt over his shoulders, Amelia letting out a small sigh of relief as she went back to sweeping.

"Yeah," Pinako said, reaching for a socket wrench, "He said he was going off to visit his mother's grave."

The major only hummed as he started to button himself up, "How long will he be gone?"

"A while, most likely. He takes his time there," Pinako said, "We probably won't see him until dinner." She picked up her screwdriver to tighten one of the parts on the leg she was working on, "Major, what kind of lives are the boys leading these days?" The man looked over at Pinako, wondering why she had asked such a question. Amelia listened, though she didn't look their way as she kept working on her own, "They have yet to send us so much as a single letter." Amelia thought it was odd, these people treated each other like family from what she had seen - like a real family - and they hadn't written them a letter or anything?

"Ed and Al are well-known for their alchemy, even in a high-profile place like Central." The major answered, "Sometimes that gets them into trouble, they seem to have a knack for finding it."

"Yeah, no kidding." Amelia scoffed quietly, remembering their encounter with Scar all too well.

"But don't worry, they're alright." Armstrong said, to soothe any fears that Pinako might have, "The Elric brothers are strong boys."

"Strong, huh?" Pinako repeated with a wry grin, "Yes, I think you could call them that." Armstrong went behind her, perusing the room, and the corkboard full of photos behind them, a few of them framed, showing Edward and Alphonse as children, and Winry, too. Sometimes with the Elric's mother, or with Pinako.

"I'm curious, Madame Rockbell," Armstrong said as he held a framed picture of the three children all pushed together in front of a nervous-looking Trisha, and a scowling Pinako, "You speak of the Elrics as though they were your grandsons."

"Of course," Pinako replied, "I've been watching over them since they were born." She reached for the socket wrench again as she kept up her work, "I'm a friend of the family, you see. The boy's father is an old drinking pal of mine. One day, he up and left the village, abandoning his wife and sons." She paused for a moment, "I don't even know whether he's alive now or not."

"Come to think of it, Madame," Armstrong continued as he put the picture down, looking over the rest of the photos there, "Where are young Winry's parents?"

"Gone, Major." Pinako said, "They both died in the civil war." She pulled on the socket wrench a little harder as she spoke about Winry's parents. Armstrong and Amelia both looked up at the mention of it. Amelia was finding out more about this war with each passing day, it seemed. The Major suffered some kind of depression from it, or maybe some PTSD from what she had gathered from his sisters; Scar was fighting because of the bloodshed in the war; and Winry, the young engineer she had just met, also lost her parents to the war. "My son and his wife were surgeons. They went to the battlefield to do what they could. There were never enough doctors for all the injured soldiers…"

"It was terrible… the war." Armstrong said solemnly, leaving the pictures alone, at last, to look over at Pinako.

"Yes, it was indeed." Pinako agreed. And that seemed to settle that subject matter quite easily. The war was terrible, each person had their own ghosts to deal with from it. There wasn't any need to speak about it at length. "Amelia, can you tell me what time it is?"

"Huh?" She was a little surprised that Pinako asked her, "Um, yeah, it's…" She looked at the clock on the wall, "It's about 4:30."

"I guess it's about time for me to get supper started." Pinako said, pushing back her stool and heading over to the smaller table where her pipe rested, "You look like you could eat a lot, Major, but don't worry. There's plenty."

"Oh, no. Please don't trouble yourself on my account." The major said humbly.

"Food always tastes better with guests, anyway." Pinako said, brushing off his humility as she reached for her pipe, "We also have an empty patient's cot and some spare bedding if you'd like. One of you might need to sleep on the sofa, but we have blankets, too. The boys don't have anywhere else to stay but here, adding two more guests won't be any inconvenience to us." She put the end to her mouth and started to take in a drag.

"What about the house they grew up in?" Armstrong asked, still curious.

Pinako blew out a puff of smoke before she said, "It's gone now. The brothers don't have any home to return to. The day they left, after Ed had gotten his state certification, they burned down their own house."

"What?" Amelia looked up at the old woman in shock, "What the hell would they do that for?"

"My guess is they did it because with no house to come home to, there could be no turning back." Pinako answered simply before turning to her, "Here, you've done enough sweeping dear." She said, coming over to take the broom from her, "Why don't you help me out with supper? I could use the extra hands."

"Um… sure, I guess, but I'm not really familiar with cooking," Amelia said as she let the old woman take the broom away and put it off to the side to rest on the wall. She looked over at her teacher, and grimaced at the sight of him on the verge of tears, she had to guess it was because of the story about the Elric brothers, but she tried to ignore it. She knew better than to try to talk to him when he was like this.

"That's perfectly fine, I just need someone to help me out with the ingredients." She said and Amelia followed behind her into the kitchen to start dinner. Pinako had her cut up a few ingredients as she said she was going to make stew since, "It was Edward's favorite when he was little, it'll be good for him." She didn't really say anything as she sliced up what she had to, putting away ingredients and listening when Pinako told her how to stir the pot so everything would mix but nothing would burn, adding in a little bit of milk here and there, too. She left her to it while she went to go get Winry, asking Major for some help bringing in Alphonse, since his armor was so heavy. They got him inside and Winry came down to start setting the table, putting out some extra plates for the Major and for Amelia, dragging a couple extra chairs from the living room into the dining room.

Soon, it started to get dark, and Pinako and Amelia had finished the dinner. In truth, Amelia was a little proud of her work on the dish, since Pinako had told her she hadn't done anything wrong. She helped Pinako serve it with some bread on the side.

Winry asked her to help Alphonse to his seat, though he waved it off, "I don't really need to sit with you guys, it might be kind of hard to get me to stay still when I'm off balance like this."

"It's not dinner if you don't join us, Al." Winry said, laughing as if he made an obvious joke. Amelia shrugged and came over to one side while Winry lifted him up by his arm, the armored boy helping by moving his good leg when he could as they brought him to his seat. There was no food set in front of him, since he couldn't eat with that body, but it seemed fine to him. In fact, if Amelia didn't know any better, she could swear he was smiling at being given a place at the table, but she couldn't really tell since the armor didn't have any expressions.

Soon enough, the door opened and Amelia grimaced at the sound of paws on the floor, hurrying to her seat as Den came in from the front door. She glared at the dog as she moved behind her seat to use it as a guard as the front door opened wider to show Edward.

"I'm ba-"

"OH, EDWARD ELRIC!" Edward didn't even get to finish his announcement as Armstrong grabbed him up and hugged him tight, his tears pouring now that the subject of the story he had heard had come home. Edward eventually managed to push away with his one arm, but that only left Armstrong to pontificate on his story, "WHAT UNYIELDING LOVE TO TRY TO BRING YOUR MOTHER BACK TO LIFE! WHAT A TREMENDOUS SACRIFICE TO GIVE UP YOUR ARM IN ORDER TO TRANSMUTE YOUR BROTHER'S DISEMBODIED SOUL! WHAT DETERMINATION TO BURN DOWN YOUR OWN HOUSE TO MAKE SURE THERE WAS NO RETREAT!" He cried through a few sobs, reaching for the hem of his shirt and throwing it off, "COME EDWARD! ALLOW ME TO OFFER YOU THIS COMFORTING EMBRACE!"

"Stay back! Don't rub your chest on me!" Edward screamed out in disgust, getting as far away from the Major as possible.

---

After a relatively calm dinner, with Pinako making small talk with the major, and Winry poking fun at Edward to make him a little mad, everyone was sent off to bed. Winry stayed up to work on her automail, and Amelia followed the major into the room with the patient's cot.

"You take the cot, Miss Seymour." Armstrong said as he got some spare blankets, "I'll sleep on the couch outside." He pat her shoulder with a smile, though she didn't return it. "Tomorrow, we will begin your alchemy training anew!"

"Great…" Amelia said, not sounding enthusiastic as she went to the cot. It was a little stiff, but nothing she couldn't deal with. She got ready for bed and got comfortable, thinking how this was probably going to be the situation for the next three days until Edward's automail was finished. The idea of spending three days here, in a house with no real air conditioning, and a dog, and her overbearing teacher who was protecting a teenager with the world's shortest fuse wasn't the most pleasant thought to drift off to. But at least she wouldn't have to deal with a 5 AM wakeup call since there was no place for her to do her morning run with Armstrong.

---

It was a white void, there was nothing she could see.

Kate was standing next to her, looking ahead, and there was a strange person there.

All white, with no face, barely visible in that void. She saw how it smiled widely. She felt uneasy.

A massive door appeared, opening wide.

Black tentacles shot out, wrapping around Amelia's middle, her arms and legs.

She couldn't hear herself scream.

"GOOD MORNING, MISS SEYMOUR!"

"Aah!" Amelia fell off the cot as she was abruptly woken up, seeing her teacher standing at her door, his arms proudly akimbo, seeing that sparkling glow on him that he seemed to have everywhere. She let out a groan as she rubbed the shoulder she had landed on, looking up at her teacher. "God, what?"

"I said good morning!" He repeated himself, "It is time for our daily fitness regimen!"

"What?" She looked over to the window, seeing the familiar colors of the sky at 5 AM. She groaned and she let herself fall back on the floor, "Seriously? Do we have to do this here?"

"We cannot train your mind unless we train your body!" Armstrong said, "We may be away from home, but that is no excuse to slack off. I will be waiting outside for you to be dressed and ready." He said before he closed the door, "And I will check on you in five minutes to make sure you are not asleep."

Amelia didn't respond other than sneering at the closed door before she got up and started to get dressed. She didn't pack her exercise clothes in the hope of avoiding this, so she just dressed in the t-shirt and jeans she had come to this world in. Dianna and Delilah hadn't done anything to throw them out, and she kept those clothes close to her. She stepped out to see her teacher waiting, and she yawned as she walked out to the living room with him. "Can't we just wait a little longer? It's not like we have a schedule to keep out here." She griped as she wiped at her eyes.

"Good morning." Amelia jumped at the sound of another voice, looking over at Alphonse's armor as he sat on the couch in the living room.

"Good morning, Alphonse Elric." Armstrong greeted him jovially.

"Morning…" Amelia still rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"You see? There are alchemists who recognize the importance of waking up early to greet the day!" Armstrong said, gesturing to Alphonse. Amelia glared up at the older man, but she noticed something about the room that made her think she could get back at her teacher this once for it.

"So, you want me to be more like a state-certified alchemist?" She asked, and Armstrong nodded, glad she seemed to understand. "Okay," she turned to Alphonse, "Where's your brother?"

"Brother's still asleep." The boy answered.

"Ha!" She grinned widely before she turned back to her teacher, pointing decisively at him, "Edward is the state-certified alchemist, and even he's not awake right now! You like waking up at ungodly hours for no good reason. I'm going back to bed." She turned around to do just that, only to have her teacher grab the back collar of her shirt and pull her along.

"Don't forget I am also a state-certified alchemist for you to emulate, so you will come along and finish your regimen for the day." Amelia grumbled, refusing to stand as her teacher dragged her along, feeling her heels rubbing up against the floor as he pulled her outside. She was put on her feet, her arms crossed as she looked out over the hills and fields that filled Resembool, the morning sun still nowhere near the sky, though part of it was growing lighter as time went on. "Now, for your run, I thought we might try a healthy jog to the train station and back." Armstrong suggested.

"Whatever." Amelia started stretching a little before her run, knowing she would be a lot sorer afterwards if she didn't. "Let's just get this over with." She picked up her legs because she knew her teacher would complain otherwise and started the jog, hearing the pounding footsteps of her teacher behind her. He eventually caught up with her, and then went ahead of her, which she expected as much from all their other training together. They ran all the way to the train station, and the sun was just starting to rise as they came back to the Rockbell house. She was already out of breath and sweating like normal when they did this regimen, and that seemed to be enough for the major to let her go back inside and rest while he did his weight-lifting with what he could find around the place.

Amelia came inside and collapsed on the couch next to Alphonse, who looked down at her as she lay on her stomach, flushed and sweaty and breathing heavy. "Does the major make you do that every morning?"

"Like damn clockwork." She groaned, letting her body relax on the cushions, "His family has this whole weird bonding thing about working out, and he thinks it's good to 'train the body and the mind' or some garbage." She sneered a little, "He's such an annoying prick sometimes."

"Well, I suppose that's just his eccentricity," Alphonse said, his voice shaking a little like he was laughing.

Amelia only let out a dry grunt in response as she lay back on the couch, "I just want to sleep and pretend the world doesn't exist for a while." She said, reaching for her phone, starting to get some music, though she grimaced when she saw how low her battery was. She cursed under her breath and pocketed her phone, shutting it down to save what life was left in it until she could find a proper outlet.

"Well, that sounds… kind of odd, but I guess if it makes you happy, you should do that." Alphonse said.

Amelia looked up at the suit of armor as he spoke, moving to sit up next to him instead of laying down, "What are you doing up so early, anyway? I didn't think anyone but the major would be up at this hour."

"Oh, um…" He shifted a bit on the couch, like he was uncomfortable, "This body doesn't really let me sleep. I've been awake all night."

"Seriously?" Amelia's eyes widened a little, "You've been up all night? On this couch? Don't you get stiff after a while?"

"Well… no. My body doesn't really let me feel much of anything, like pain or discomfort." He said, "And I don't need to eat either."

"Huh." Amelia sat, contemplating for a moment, "But you can talk and hear things just fine, right? And see everything?"

"Yeah, that's right."

She hummed, "So it's like… losing your sense of touch, and your sense of taste, and your desire to eat or sleep…" She murmured, trying to picture that kind of existence in her head. She'd had parts of her numbed up before, like with Novocain at the dentist's office when she had a tooth pulled. She tried to imagine that feeling on her whole body, never really feeling anything, or eating anything… Her brow furrowed as she couldn't really understand it. The idea of not being able to feel anything at all, just feeling your body move when something moves it, or not knowing if you're sitting on something soft, or something you shouldn't be sitting on, it was a hard thing to conjure in her mind, "I can't really imagine what that's like."

"It's a… unique experience, I guess." Alphonse said with a shrug from his good shoulder.

"I guess so." Amelia stood up, "Well, I'm gonna get some water, I'm dying from thirst." She said as she made her way to the kitchen.

---

Amelia stood off to one side in the kitchen as Armstrong worked with something she couldn't really see yet. They were still continuing her alchemy lessons, and he was apparently very excited for today's. She didn't really know why, but she let him take his time in setting up the lesson since it meant she could relax a little while longer. He stood over the kitchen table as he took out a folded-up piece of cloth that he had brought down from upstairs, she could only assume he had packed it in his suitcase.

Amelia watched as her teacher put down the tarp that had a ready-made alchemic circle on it and stepped aside, "Do you recognize this array?" He asked, and she stepped forward to look at it closer.

"It's a hexagonal array, and without any specific markings to the contrary, I'd guess this one was for basic transmutations involving base elements," Amelia said, remembering what she'd read in her textbooks.

"Yes, exactly." He smiled at her, "Today will be your first lesson in transmutation." Amelia looked up at him with wide eyes. Transmutation was the thing that started manipulation of the elements that allowed alchemists to change things to what they want or need. "Now, do you remember the three steps for transmutation?"

"Yes, understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction." Amelia recited.

"Explain the steps."

"First you understand the object you are transmuting, knowing its elemental makeup and knowing how much you need to change from those elements in those amounts." Armstrong nodded approvingly, "Deconstruction is where you take the understanding of those elements and separate them purely into those elements. Reconstruction is taking the separated elements and rebuilding them into something else."

"Very good." Her teacher praised her, "Do you remember the elemental makeup of sand?" He asked as he pulled out a small bag and started to pour a little pile of sand into the middle of the transmutation circle.

"Um… sand is silica in a quartz form… so it's silicon dioxide?" She was somewhat certain of that.

"And what is glass?" Her teacher asked.

Amelia knew that one easily, "Glass is superheated silicon melted down and reshaped."

"Excellent." He praised her knowledge, "Now, what I would like you to do is transmute this sand into glass. It can be any form that you like, just remember how much you are working with and make something appropriate to that size." He gestured to the small pile and Amelia came over.

"I can do that." She said, putting her hands on the edge of the circle as she looked down at the pile of sand, picturing what to make. She decided to keep it simple, a glass ball with a flat bottom would be enough, she figured. "Okay, so understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction…" She muttered, "I think I know what to do."

"Good, then you can transmute whenever you are ready," Armstrong said, stepping back to let his student work.

"Okay…!" Amelia remembered how this worked, having read the steps a hundred times in the alchemy textbooks, she understood the elements she was working with, and she knew that she just needed to get the sand to be hot enough to make glass. She pressed her hands together, knowing this was the first step, by creating a ring with your own body, you were pulling on energy from the tectonic plates shifting around the world. She pressed her hands to the transmutation circle, seeing it activating in her mind's eye, with blue lightning shooting around to heat up the sand and change its shape.

Only it didn't happen like that. She had put her hands down on the circle and nothing happened.

She stared at the sand in the center for a moment before she pulled back, "Wait, I think I did it wrong." She said before she went over the steps mentally again, pressing her hands together, knowing what she wanted to do with the energy from her transmutation and pressed them to the circle again to heat up the sand and change it to glass. But still, nothing happened. She frowned and looked up at her teacher, "Am I doing something wrong? Nothing's happening."

"Keep trying," Armstrong said, who seemed to be expecting this. Amelia tried again, and again, and again. She let out a groan of frustration.

"What is this?!" She snapped out, "Why can't I do it?! I know the steps, I understand what I'm working with, what's wrong?" She looked up to her teacher, desperately hoping for an answer, but was only met with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

"I can't help you here. It's not something I can give you the answer to." He said.

"Why not?" Amelia asked him, "I have to be able to transmute! After all this studying, if I don't transmute- If I just can't transmute, then I can't be a state alchemist! Everything I've learned will be pointless!"

"This is something that every alchemist needs to learn themselves." Armstrong said, he came over to her side, putting his large hand on her shoulder, "Keep trying, you'll understand."

"Understand? I understand!" She said, "I know to understand, I know to deconstruct, I know to reconstruct, I know the steps!"

"But you don't quite understand." Amelia was starting to get frustrated with this unusually cryptic behavior of his. "Give it time, keep trying until you are able to transmute."

She groaned again, banging her hands against the circle on the table, "I'm trying! What am I doing wrong?!"

Armstrong shook his head, "Getting angry won't help you." He was only met with an angry scowl from his student. All of her other teachers in the past, when she had trouble with something, would help her figure it out, but he wasn't doing anything to help at all! He was just standing there and telling her to keep trying.

"Well, I'm clearly doing something wrong." She said.

"And you will understand it," Armstrong said reassuringly, but Amelia took it as anything but that. "In any case, you're not allowed to leave this table until you do understand it."

"What?!" Amelia looked up at him with wide eyes, "Are you serious?!"

"This is a crucial part of your lessons, Amelia." Armstrong said seriously, "If you cannot understand it, then from this point onward, there is nothing that I can teach you."

"That's not fair! I made a deal with the Fuhrer, the leader of your country, that I would be able to learn this stuff so I wouldn't go to jail!"

"I'm afraid I can't teach a student incapable of transmutation." Armstrong said solemnly, "This is your responsibility. You need to be able to understand in order to expand your alchemical skillset. His Excellency has no use for an alchemist who cannot perform alchemy." He took a step back, "Now, I have promised to do some more chores for Madam Pinako. You will remain here until you turn the sand into glass." And with that, he left the room, leaving Amelia staring down at the table with the pile of sand on it.

She didn't want to admit it, but he was right in that the fuhrer didn't have any use for someone who can't perform alchemy. Somewhere in her mind, naively, she assumed it wouldn't be difficult to learn a pseudo-science like alchemy, and that she would be able to get out of jail. But the first time she saw it in action when Armstrong was hunting down Isaac McDougal, and she realized that this science was a real thing that gave someone the equivalent of superpowers from what she could tell, she knew there was a chance she might not be able to do it. She knew that there was a very real, very powerful chance that she wouldn't be able to do alchemy like that, but she had been desperate for a way out and still stayed. Looking at the stand, she was looking down at her inevitable imprisonment, stuck in a jail cell for ten years, eating too-dry bread and slimy stew.

She groaned in frustration, her hands going up into her hair as she tried to figure out what she was doing wrong. She knew the steps, she knew everything about how to transmute, but some element was missing, something that was preventing her from putting her knowledge into action.

---

Half an hour had passed, and Amelia still stared at the pile of sand, unchanged, and stubbornly refusing to transmute. She had been trying still, pressing her hands to make a ring with her body to pull on the energy, and then pressing it to the cloth-drawn circle on the table, only to have no results.

"Oh, come on!" She was getting so angry and frustrated with herself. She reached her hands up into her hair and tugged, feeling her eyes sting with angry tears. Why couldn't she get this?! Why was this so difficult?! What wasn't she understanding?! What was missing?! And why won't her teacher help her figure out the damn answer?! She could hear him outside, patching up a hole in the roof and retiling the spot like Pinako had asked of him. She kicked at the table, a little satisfied as she watched the sand pile shift at the motion, "God, fuck this." She would rather take a chance to run away and risk definite imprisonment than know that her deal was a farce.

This was the exact moment that Edward decided to come into the kitchen, looking at Amelia with a curious expression as she kicked at the table leg. "The table's a little wobbly sometimes, but I don't think it deserves to be beaten." He said. Amelia's head shot up to see his face, and his eyes widened at her flushed cheeks and blurry eyes, "What happened to you?"

"I got pissed." She said gruffly, glaring down at the sand pile, "I hate this sand, I hate this thing, I hate this lesson, I fucking hate alchemy!" She said.

Ed chuckled a little to himself, "You sound like a kid throwing a tantrum."

"You shut up!" She snapped at him, "If you were in my position, you wouldn't be laughing!"

"If I was in your position, I would already do whatever I had to do." He walked past her over to the pantry, reaching in and pulling out a loaf of bread and a few other things while Amelia glared at his back. If she hadn't been so frustrated, she would notice how weird it was to see Edward with his hair down, dressed in just a shirt and a pair of shorts.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" She asked, watching as he closed the pantry door with his foot, his arm holding some bread, cheese, and a jar of something. He looked over at her as he put all the things he had gathered onto the kitchen counter.

"This is the kitchen. I'm hungry and I'm making some food." He said, going over to the icebox and pulling out something that Amelia could only assume was bologna of some kind. "What are you doing in here?"

"Armstrong's trying to teach me an alchemy lesson, and it's not going over well!" She shouted at the ceiling like he would be able to hear her through the roof. She looked down at the pile of sand, "He said I couldn't leave this spot until I transmuted the sand into glass."

"So, why don't you?" Edward asked.

"Because… something's wrong and I don't know what!" Amelia put her hands together, and then on the circle, watching as the sand just shifted, "I keep trying, but nothing is working! I know the steps, I know to understand, deconstruct, and reconstruct. I know sand is silicon dioxide in a crystallized form. I know that alchemy works by pulling energy from the movement of the tectonic plates. But no matter what I do, I can't make this work!" She slammed her fists down on the table in her frustration, "I don't understand what I'm doing wrong!" She pulled away from the table, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hands so those frustrated and angry tears wouldn't fall. "Armstrong said I don't understand, and that's why it's not working."

"Oh, I see." Edward said, and Amelia looked up at him, "I get it."

"You do?" She asked, "Well, tell me what the answer is here, because if I can't do this, my deal is moot and I go to prison."

Edward shrugged, "You just need to get it. You can have all the information on alchemy in the world, but if you don't get it then you can't transmute." Amelia scowled.

"Okay, now you're just being as vague as he was."

"No, I'm telling you that you don't get alchemy, not in the way you think you do." Edward tried to clarify, "It's good to know the steps and the makeup, but what you're missing is the part where you get it. You get it, and then you're able to transmute."

"And what exactly am I supposed to get here?!" Amelia snapped.

Edward frowned at her tone, "If you want my help, you need to calm down and stop raising your voice. Throwing a tantrum isn't going to help."

"Then help me!" Edward scowled and she stopped, she took a deep breath in and out, trying to calm down, "Okay… Okay, I'm just… I'm calm now. I'm good. I'm not yelling." She looked up at him, "Please, I just… I don't want to go to jail over this. Just help me get whatever I'm supposed to get." Edward's expression softened in just the slightest at her pleading.

"Equivalent exchange." Amelia looked at him confusedly.

"What?"

"I do something for you, you do something for me." She frowned.

"So, what, if you help me I owe you a favor?"

"No, if I help you, you make me a sandwich the way I like." Edward raised his arm to show her, "Can't really spread mayonnaise with one hand. Not easily, anyway."

"Oh, is that it?" She asked, "Seems kind of simple."

"What you're asking me to do is pretty simple, so I think it's fair." Edward said, "Your problem is just that you don't get it."

"Okay, but what am I not getting?" She asked, a frustrated tone still in her voice, "I don't know what you mean."

"Let me put it another way," Edward said, "Have you ever encountered something you didn't understand at first? Like a chemical formula, or something?" Amelia paused as she tried to think of what he meant, going back to her lessons in chemistry.

"Yeah, I guess… back when I was first learning algebra." She said, "It took me a little bit to understand how the different formulas worked, like y = mx +b."

"Okay, but you know how to use that formula now, right?" Amelia nodded.

"Yeah, it's all just about putting the variables in the right place."

"And do you remember when you finally started to get it?" Amelia understood what Edward was saying now.

"Oh, I get it now." She said, "You're saying that I don't get it because it hasn't clicked yet, right? I don't understand the formula, so that's why the transmutation isn't working."

"There you go." Edward said, "You just haven't gotten it yet, and that's not really something that can be taught. It's just repeating the information until it sticks and you get it."

"Yeah…" Amelia looked down at the sand pile, then back at Edward, "Would you mind going over everything with me? I just want to make sure I haven't missed anything by accident."

"Okay, but I'm hungry and I want my sandwich soon." Amelia scowled at him.

"I'll make your damn sandwich, alright? Just help me." She still scowled as he came over to the table. "Okay, so… let's just go over the steps first. Understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction, right?"

"Right."

"I understand that sand is silicon dioxide that's been crystallized, and I know that it's basic elements are silicon and oxygen, so that's deconstructing, and I need to reconstruct it without too much oxygen, and just speed up the molecules of silicon to make it hot enough to turn into glass. That's right, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"So… then I make a ring with my body first, to pull on the energy of the tectonic movements…" She put her hands together, "And then apply that energy into the transmutation." She put her hands to the circle and watched as nothing happened. She sighed defeatedly, "What am I doing wrong? What am I not getting?"

"You might just be too much inside your head." Edward suggested, making her look up. "You're focusing too much on the outcome, maybe try just focusing on this moment."

"It's kind of hard to do that when my future rests on whether or not I can change this stuff." She sarcastically replied.

"But you're not going to jail now, right?" Edward's words did give her a little comfort. "Armstrong won't send you off without giving you a chance to prove that you can be the alchemist you're supposed to be. He's too nice for that."

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Amelia said, looking down at the sand pile.

"When you're transmuting, you have to focus entirely on that." Edward said, "At least, that's how it was when I first started. All my concentration went into the transmutation."

"When did you first start doing alchemy?" Amelia asked.

Edward shrugged in a way that should have appeared modest, but the smirk on his face said it was more of a smugness, "I was about five or six."

"Seriously? You're a fucking liar." Amelia dismissed it immediately.

"I am not! I was certified as an alchemist when I was 12, I know my shit." Edward huffed, "And I know that when you start out, for some people, it's hard to understand it, but when you get it, you just… get it."

Amelia looked back down at the sand pile, pushing away the fears she had about jail, about spending so many years in there, or that she would have to plan an escape and get lost and die in the middle of nowhere somehow. She took a deep breath in and out as she focused on the sand, picturing the chemical formula for it in her mind's eye. She stood up straight and pressed her hands together before she brought them down on the circle. To her shock, she watched as the circle lit up, the sand in the middle of it shifting and swirling as it was hit by the little lightning bolts over and over until it grew red and changed into the little glass ball she had been hoping for.

"I did it!" She cried out, reaching to pick up the finished product, and hissing in pain as she pulled her hands away. It was still kind of hot. "Okay, that hurt a little, but I did it!" She couldn't help smiling, she felt more accomplished than she had in years. She smiled brightly at Edward, who smiled in turn.

"Yeah, good job." He said, "Now you can make me a sandwich like we agreed on." Amelia's smile fell slightly, but she sighed and went around him, going over to where he had put the bread and meats and everything to make the promised food. Edward watched over her shoulder, telling her how much of what he wanted on his food, which was mostly just a lot of bologna and cheese with mayonnaise on either side. She handed him the sandwich when it was done and he took it with a smile, biting down and eating it as Amelia grabbed her glass ball (which had cooled since she made the sandwich) and ran outside to where the ladder rested on the side of the Rockbell house.

"Teacher! I did it!" She called up to Armstrong, who looked back and saw the little ball she held, "I did it! I transmuted the sand!" He quickly started to make his way down from the roof, and Amelia grimaced at the sight of tears on his cheeks, "What the-?"

"YOU CALLED ME TEACHER!" He shouted before he threw his arms around her and picked her up, despite her very loud protests against the hug, "THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU HAVE EVER CALLED ME TEACHER! I AM SO PLEASED, AMELIA!"

"Stop! Put me down! I can't breathe!" She shouted back at him, and he put her down, though it still took him a second to calm down and stop crying, "Jesus, do you have to cry over everything?"

"It's just so moving that you finally recognize me as your teacher!" Armstrong said as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Okay, whatever, but look! I transmuted the sand like you asked! It finally clicked!" She held up the thing she was so proud of and her teacher bent down to examine it. He gently plucked it from her fingers. It was small, no bigger than the palm of Amelia's own hand, smooth with a couple of spots concaved in just the slightest where some oxygen remained inside and had changed the shape, but it was otherwise a good transmutation.

"Excellent work, Amelia!" He beamed at her, seeing his own student shining with pride at being praised. "With this, we can move on to the next stage of your alchemical training!"

---

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, with Amelia working on transmuting what things she could find, with Armstrong helping her to understand the alchemical makeup of common household objects since it was important that she knew how to transmute wood, should she ever be in a combat situation. There was dinner shared among the group, and then they went to bed. Amelia didn't have any strange dreams again like the night before but slept soundly until the following morning.

She went hunting for an outlet the next morning, seeing as how her phone battery was slowly depleting and she didn't want to be without it for the trip back. She managed to find one in Winry's room, where she had her own work bench as she worked with Edward's automail. After asking if it was alright, Amelia came inside and plugged up her phone into the outlet, sitting beside it as she watched the battery slowly come back to her phone. The room was silent other than the sound of gentle clinking, clicking, and drilling from Winry's work.

"It was Amelia, right?" Winry asked after a few moments of quiet, and Amelia looked up.

"Yeah, that's right."

"Can I ask you something? About Edward?" Amelia shrugged and Winry took that as permission, "How are things going for him in Central? I always worry about him, but he never calls to tell us what's happening."

Amelia shrugged again, "I don't really know, to be honest with you. I barely know the guy, I've only met him a couple times before I had to take this trip with him." She answered, "But I know he gets into trouble a lot, which doesn't surprise me because he's an ass." Winry smiled and snickered a little as she got back to work.

"Yeah, he is kind of an ass." She agreed, "He only comes home for repairs, he's always late for any maintenance, and every time I see him it's just for the work." She looked carefully at a piece of Edward's shoulder that she was working on, making sure she had everything properly connected. "I just wish he would take better care of my precious automail. Sometimes, I think he forgets just how much work goes into these."

"I wouldn't know about that." Amelia said, "But he does seem kind of frustrated without his arm right now. I think he'll appreciate it a little more once he has it back." Winry smiled, but said nothing more as she kept working. Amelia passed a little time distracting herself on her phone, pulling up a couple games to play while she waited for the battery to finish charging, even though she knew that was just making it slower to charge, it was easier than just sitting in silence with Winry as she worked.

"What is that thing, anyway?" She looked up when the mechanic inquired about her phone.

"It's a phone." She said, holding it up to show her the screen, "Well, kind of. It does a lot of other stuff than just call people. It's a piece of technology from my home, and it's kind of the only thing I have that makes me feel comfortable." Winry's eyes got a little wide as she saw the screen was brightly colored, with parts of it moving at Amelia's touch.

"That looks incredible! Can I see it?" Winry asked, Amelia shrugged as she unplugged it and handed it to her.

"Just for a second, it needs to finish charging." She took it back before Winry could touch it, "Your gloves are covered in grease, could you…?"

"Oh, right." Winry took off her gloves and reached for the phone again, moving her finger over the screen with starry eyes as she watched it interact with her touch. She pressed a button or two to test what they did, and went between apps to see what they did. "This is amazing! I've never seen a piece of technology like this!" She smiled and turned to Amelia with an expression not unlike that of a child about to beg for candy, "Would it be okay if I took this apart to see how it worked?"

"Hell no!" Amelia snatched her phone back in a second, clutching it to her chest as she glared at the mechanic, "You're not bringing any tools anywhere near my phone! It's an extremely delicate piece of technology!"

"Oh, come on! I'd put it back together again, you don't even need to worry!" Winry said, and Amelia backed out of her reach with an angry scowl.

"I'm leaving." She stomped out of the room, carrying her charger with her, instead deciding to begin the search again for another outlet.

---

Amelia ended up finding another outlet outside, she guessed it was for yard work of some kind, or some kind of weird mistake in the architecture. She didn't particularly care as she waited in the sunlight with her phone. She put it aside as she grew bored with it, looking out ahead of her and onto the horizon of Resembool. She could see small mountains surrounding the place, with rolling hills covered in green grass. And it was so quiet, too, she could hear a couple birds chirping, and a few hens clucking nearby.

She looked around, just observing the environment. Alphonse wasn't too far away, but his back was facing her and it was hard for him to move from where he sat up against a barrel. Den was napping near him, and he hadn't woken up when she came outside, so she was glad for that. She wasn't even sure Alphonse knew she was there, but she didn't really want to ruin anything.

She jumped when she heard a door slam and Den's head lifted up as all three of them turned to see a disgruntled Edward coming outside and flopping down next to his brother in the grass.

"Did you bother Winry again?" Alphonse asked.

"She kicked me out." Edward muttered.

"They said it would take three days, right?" His brother asked, "So give them three days."

"Yeah, I know, I know…" Edward sighed, "It's just when I think of a clue to the stone sitting in Central Library somewhere, I get so impatient!" He squirmed a little on the grass, Den copying him happily before Edward relaxed and laid back. He looked back from where he was lying down to see Amelia, who looked back at him with a blank expression, "What are you doing out here?"

"Staying as far away from your mechanic as possible." Amelia replied. Her voice got Den's attention, and he started trotting over to her. She gasped and got up, putting some space between her and the dog, only for him to come after her, "No, go away! Shoo! Bad dog!" He panted happily as he came closer, and she walked around him, going over to Edward and Alphonse in an attempt to get further away, "No! Play with them! They like you!" Edward reached up to hold onto Den's collar as he walked past him, keeping him still even though he whimpered, wanting to play with Amelia.

"What's your problem with dogs?" Edward asked, "Den's a really good dog, he doesn't bite."

"That doesn't mean he won't!" Amelia snapped, glaring at the dog, who only looked back at her with his tongue hanging out as he panted. "I can't stand dogs; especially big ones like him."

"But why?" Alphonse asked, "Did you get bit by a dog?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did." She said, "Repeatedly bitten, I might add." She glared at Den, "I don't like dogs."

"Well, Den won't bite if you know what you're doing." Edward said, and Amelia vehemently shook her head.

"No! I don't want that thing anywhere near me!" She said. The door slammed again and they looked up to see Winry coming out with an automail arm.

"Here you go!" She said happily, "It's all ready!" She smiled as she held up her completed arm, and Edward grinned.

"Finally!" He jumped up and rushed inside, with Amelia following after him since Den seemed keen to stay outside with Alphonse.

She watched as Winry brought him inside and got him to sit on the couch, Pinako coming in carrying his leg. The Major stood to the side, "So, this is where you'll reattach his limbs?" He asked.

"It's not a complicated process once all the ports are in place," Pinako said as she took away Edward's spare leg that he had been walking around on for the last three days. "But it does take a little bit of maintenance to make sure everything is in order before we let him go." She put the leg on a table to where it could reach Edward as Winry helped him take off his shirt so she could have better access to the port on his shoulder.

Amelia was surprised at Edward's fit body underneath his clothes, he was actually pretty fit. She wasn't really expecting to see him with a six pack. But when she looked at his shoulder, she saw a surprising myriad of scars around the automail port. "Those look intense." She commented without really thinking.

"Well, scars are a side effect of surgery." Edward said, "Personally, I think it makes me look kind of badass." Amelia and Winry both snorted in laughter at his words and he frowned, "What? Scars make you look badass! It's a fact!"

"If that's what makes you feel better…" Winry said as she started to attach his arm.

"Alright, looks like everything is in place for the nerves to connect." Pinako said, "Are you ready Edward?" The grimace came back as he nodded in response, watching as the old woman and her granddaughter got the tools they needed for it. "On one,"

"Two," Winry continued the count.

"Three!" They spoke together as they pulled a lever, and Edward stifled a groan in pain as he sat on the couch, Amelia watching him squirm a little before he calmed down.

"That's the worst part, every time! When the nerves have to connect like that…" He said, "Once we have the philosopher's stone, I can kiss that pain goodbye."

"Our biggest source of income. I'll be sad to see you go." Pinako said before she pulled on one spot hard, and Edward flinched in pain.

"Hold still." Winry said as she worked, "Do you want me to do this right or not?" She pulled on another spot and Edward flinched again. "It's just so lovely!" Winry stood up as she spoke, a dreamy expression on her face. "The smell of oil, the hum of the ball-bearings, the rugged yet amazingly beautiful form created through anatomical engineering!" She sighed out, "Ahhh, how wonderful you are, my automail!"

"Crazy gearhead…" Edward muttered.

"You're lost without me, alchemy freak." Winry snapped back, and Edward was quiet as the finished his maintenance and covered the parts they had worked on.

"Alright, we're done," Pinako said, stepping back as Edward stood up. He tested his new limbs, stretching out his new arm and stretching his leg up against a wall. Amelia was again surprised at his fitness and flexibility as she watched him essentially do the splits to stretch out his leg against the wall. "Well?"

"Yeah, it feels good!" Edward said as he rotated his shoulder around with a smile.

"I increased the percentage of chrome this time, so it should be less prone to rusting." Winry told him, "The trade-off is that it's not quite as strong, so don't try anything crazy-" She couldn't finish before Edward was already running out the door on his new leg, "Hey, listen up!"

"Al, it's your turn!" Edward hollered, eager to repair his brother. Amelia watched her teacher go upstairs to grab something and came back down with a tarp sack that jingled oddly as he walked down the stairs. She wondered if it was the remaining bits of Alphonse's armor. She walked back outside with him as he went over to where Edward was with his brother, talking to him and showing off his new arm and leg. Armstrong laid out the bag, opening it to show it was the remains of Alphonse's armor that they had managed to collect after the attack from Scar. They watched him immediately go to work, placing the remaining missing limbs on one side as he undid the tarp that covered Al's right shoulder and leg.

"You can fix him right here?" Armstrong asked, sounding a little impressed.

"Yep, you have to know the trick to it, though." Edward said, standing straight as he reached for Al's helmet, "Sorry."

"It's okay," Al replied as Edward took off his helmet, showing the seal on the inside of the armor.

"Major, you see that seal on the inside of his back?" Edward asked as he pointed it out, Amelia coming a little closer to take a better look at it. "That's the medium between Al's soul and the armor. So, I have to be sure not to ruin it."

"It looks like it was drawn in blood," Amelia commented as she looked at the dark red circle.

"Well, it was kind of an emergency situation." Edward said with a light chuckle. Amelia wasn't sure how to respond, so she said nothing. Edward transmuted his brother's soul after they had tried to transmute their mother. She guessed, at that point, he had already lost his leg. He must have used that blood to draw the seal. She didn't know how old Edward was when he had done the transmutation, but the thought of a child, bleeding from a missing leg, doing everything to transmute the soul of the last person left in his family… It was a little heartbreaking. She stepped back as Edward stepped forward, putting his brother's helmet back before he clapped his hands together. Amelia's eyes widened as she realized Edward was transmuting without a transmutation circle, watching as Alphonse's body began to mend itself in the light of the transmutation. She could only assume this was the reason he was accepted as a state alchemist, because alchemy was supposed to be impossible to perform without a transmutation circle, at least according to her textbooks that she read.

Soon, the light faded and Alphonse stood up, testing his arm and putting weight on his leg, standing tall at 7 feet. "There you go! You're good as new!" Edward said, grinning up at his brother, "You ready to try it out?"

"Yeah!" Alphonse replied, the two of them rushing off and starting to spar with one another while Amelia and Armstrong watched from the side.

"He didn't… use a transmutation circle." Amelia said as she watched them fight with moves that she had only seen in movies, they were trained in martial arts as well?

"Yes, it is the reason that Edward became a state alchemist." Armstrong said, "He is the only alchemist that is able to do such a feat."

"That's amazing…" Amelia said under her breath, "Do you think I could learn to do that someday?" Armstrong looked down at his student.

"I can't say for certain, I'd never heard of circle-less alchemy before Edward. I know I can't teach you that." He said, "But if you continue your studies in alchemy, perhaps one day, you can." He encouraged her, and Amelia felt determination welling up inside of her. This guy, who wasn't much older than her, was already so far ahead. The idea of coming up to his level and showing off was actually a very pleasing one. She hoped that day would come, but she had a long way to go before then.

---

The rest of the day was spent packing for tomorrow, since Edward and Alphonse wanted to leave as soon as possible to get to Marcoh's research notes that he had hidden in Central. Amelia had spent the remainder of the day getting her phone to charge and getting it ready for the trip, as well as getting in a few more transmutation lessons with her teacher. She kept up with the title, though she was wary of using it when she was too close to him, in case he became moved with emotion and decided to hug her again.

Soon enough, the evening came, and Amelia was walking down the hall to get a late-night snack before she went to bed since she was feeling a little peckish. The Major had gone to another room to use the Rockbell's telephone, mentioning he needed to get some people ready for him in Central. She didn't particularly care, but she stopped when she noticed the door to the living room was open slightly, and she could see inside to see Edward asleep on the couch, snoring lightly as Alphonse corrected his body so he didn't sleep with his stomach out of his shirt.

"Sleeping with his tummy out again… What am I gonna do with him?" He asked himself. Pinako smiled as she looked up at the suit of armor, holding onto her pipe.

"It's like you're the older one, huh Al?" She asked amusedly.

"He can be a handful," Alphonse's voice mimicked her amused tone, "Someone has to look after him."

Winry came over with a blanket and draped it over Ed's body on the couch. "How old are the two of you boys now?" Pinako asked.

"I'm fourteen, and Brother's fifteen," Alphonse said. Amelia felt that knowledge sting a little, he was a year younger than her and already so much farther ahead?

"To think, someone as young and as small as he is could be used as a human weapon." Winry said, taking a seat on the couch next to Edward's head, "It's almost funny. Especially watching him sleep." Amelia frowned at the term "human weapon" but based on what she had seen of state alchemists like her teacher and Edward, she wondered if that's what all alchemists were meant to be. Human weapons in combat for the betterment of the state. She wasn't sure she liked that idea, since she was training to be one.

"Thank you, both of you." Alphonse's quiet voice pulled Amelia out of her thoughts and she looked back in the room.

"What's this? Why so formal?" Winry asked.

"Granny, Winry, I'm so grateful to you for always welcoming us like we're really family." Alphonse said, "He won't ever say it, but… I know Brother feels the same way."

"Al…" Winry's voice came through, sounding a little touched that Alphonse would say that.

"Don't you worry, dear. We know he feels that way, too." Pinako said, "He doesn't have to say it."

"Granny, Winry… Thank you." Alphonse said again.

Amelia stood to the side, still by the door as she had listened in on the whole conversation. Hearing Alphonse's gratitude to them like this made her feel out of place. Alphonse and Pinako and Winry and Edward all knew each other for so long, and they all really cared about each other. A bitter jealousy burned inside of her for a moment as she thought about how close they were, and how she wasn't even that close to her own blood. She moved away from the door, heading back to bed quietly. She had suddenly lost her appetite.

---

The next morning, Amelia was woken up bright and early by the Major to head out for their train. They planned on getting the first one out, which left at around 6 AM. She got dressed and met them outside in the early morning light, watching as Edward pulled on his red coat and the glared at a little. It was bright red and so damn gaudy… why would he wear that? And with black leather pants, too.

Pinako met them outside, keeping one hand on Den's collar so as to keep Amelia at ease about the dog. None of them seemed to understand why she didn't like dogs, but they were at least respectful about it.

"Thank you again for everything, Granny," Edward said to her.

"Sure," Pinako replied.

"Hey, where's Winry?" Alphonse asked, noticing the blonde girl was absent from seeing them off.

"Resting." Pinako said, "She stayed up three nights in a row. Want me to wake her?"

"Nah, that's okay." Edward said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "She'd just nag me. 'Make sure to do your maintenance' and whatever." He turned and started to walk, Alphonse following behind him, and Amelia and Armstrong doing the same. They had taken a few steps down the path when Pinako called out to them.

"Hold on a second, boys!" The brothers stopped and turned to see Pinako grinning with her pipe in her mouth, "You should come back once in a while and have dinner with us." Alphonse laughed quietly and nodded his head.

Edward smiled as he looked at her, "You want us to come all this way out into the mountains just for some dinner?" Pinako only smiled in reply, and that seemed to be enough for Edward.

"Edward, Alphonse," They looked up to see a tired Winry still in her pajamas resting on the rail of the balcony by her window, smiling as she waved to them, "Come back soon, 'kay?"

Edward turned around, his hand going to rub the back of his head before he waved goodbye to her, "Yeah." Alphonse waved to Winry, and the group continued on their walk to the train station to make their way back to Central. Amelia felt that jealousy burning inside her chest at how… kind they were to see Edward and Alphonse off like this. She didn't say anything as she kept walking with them, her focus just on returning to Central and learning more about alchemy so she could move forward to her state certification. She didn't have time to be jealous over someone else's family, she had her own goals to meet and she needed to keep her attention on that, to perfect her transmutation to where she could be certified and move forward with her life.

Still, she did make one comment as they got further out.

"Why the hell do you wear that coat? It's gaudy as hell."

"What are you talking about?" Edward proudly puffed his chest out, "I think it looks awesome!"

"You look like a skinny tomato with a rotten inside with you wearing those leather clothes." She said, hearing Alphonse laugh a bit at her remark, Edward glaring back at her.

"You just don't understand good taste." He said.

"Good taste?" Amelia repeated, "Are you kidding? Your jacket has to be the biggest eyesore I've ever seen! I've honestly been wanting to say this since I saw you wear it. It's ugly."

"You shut up! I've got a great sense of style!"

"Honestly, your brother wearing a suit of armor looks so much better than you do in that outfit."

"Thank you, Amelia!" Alphonse was beaming at the compliment.

"Of course, Al looks better! He looks awesome with armor!" Edward got a little more aggressive, as if he was daring her to say his brother looked bad in a body he couldn't change.

"Yeah, and you're fucking hideous, man. You need to change something about that."

"I don't need to change anything!"

"I don't know, I don't think it could hurt to change your style a bit, Brother." Alphonse put in.

"Ha!" Amelia grinned triumphantly as Edward looked to his brother with an expression betrayal.

"Alphonse!"

"I'm just saying, it couldn't hurt to be more conspicuous sometimes." He said, holding up his hands defensively.

"I agree with both of them, Edward." The Major said, "There is a great benefit to dressing like a gentleman, especially when dressing so outrageously can get you into trouble since you're so easily spotted."

Edward let out a loud shout in frustration, "AHHH! Shut up! Shut up! You guys just don't understand my sense of style!"