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…

26. Learning New Things

Amelia rubbed at her eyes, glaring at Edward as the sun started its trip above them. She had been given a very rude awakening that morning after a long night of alchemical drills. Edward had decided to wake her up by banging on Alphonse's hollow armor just outside of her open door, and the sound of his automail hand hitting the steel of Al's body still rang in her ears, and she made sure to yell at him for it. So did Alphonse. After a light breakfast and a change from pajamas into some more appropriate clothes for learning to fight, she now stood outside around the back end of the hotel where Edward seemed raring to go. He had spent the last fifteen minutes teaching her some basic positions to defend herself, and he clearly noticed her lack of enthusiasm.

He was doing some drills with her, trying to lead her on how to punch when he saw she wasn't really putting in anything behind it, "If I had known you were going to be like this, I wouldn't have agreed to teach you." He said.

"Fuck you, it's too early." She snapped.

"It's 10 in the morning, it's not too early. Some would even argue you slept in."

"Fuck you."

"Is that all you got? I was expecting some better snark than that."

"Fuck off!" She almost snarled at him, not in the mood for his sass.

"That's a bit more like it." He gave her a cheeky grin before he stepped away, "Alright, stop. I think you've got it." She let out a small grunt, and he stepped in front of her, "Now, give me your best shot."

She looked at him blankly, "What?"

"I taught you how to punch, so now you need to learn how a fight goes. Hit me." Edward said, his hands up, ready for a fight.

Amelia stared at him before she shrugged and threw a lackadaisical punch, which Edward effortlessly caught with a frown, "Come on, I thought you said you wanted to learn how to fight."

"I do." Amelia said, and then she sighed, "I just didn't think you'd make me wake up early." She pulled her hand back and took a moment to relax, "I don't like mornings. I hate waking up early."

"Well, there's only so much time in the day, and you're going to need to learn." Edward said, and got back into his fighting stance, "Now, come on. Try to actually hit me this time." Amelia let out a huff before she pulled back her arm to hit Edward in his chest, only for him to grab her arm and direct it away before it ever reached his chest and knocked her off-balance, making her stumble onto the hard ground.

"What the hell?" She demanded, looking up at Edward from the ground.

"Try to hit me." He told her again. She stood up, dusted herself off and pulled her fist back again, only for the same thing to happen and she was knocked back.

"Ed!" She was getting annoyed.

"What? You still haven't hit me." He said, grinning at her.

"I can't hit you if you keep doing that!" She snapped, going for him again, only for him to push her back. She was still standing this time, and went after him again, only for him to redirect her arm again. "Stay still, you prick!" He still refused, still pushing her hands away, all the while wearing a grin that tormented her last nerve, "And wipe that goddamn smile off your face!" She went to punch him, and he dodged for the first time before ducking down and grabbing her by her middle, picking her up and putting her on his shoulder before he tossed her down onto the ground. "Ow! Son of a bitch." She landed on her backside, and nothing was broken, but she knew she was going to be sore, "That hurt, Ed!"

"Fighting hurts." Edward said bluntly, "And you need to be ready to experience that. Have you fought anyone before now?" He asked as he lent her his hand to help her stand up.

She accepted it, "No, I never had to before now." She was pulled up to her feet, and then Edward threw a punch at her, which she barely managed to avoid, "The fuck?!"

"Defend yourself!" Edward shouted, and she threw up her arms to take the brunt of his flesh hand as it landed on her forearm, taking the defensive boxing stance she had been taught by the Major. She stepped back but Edward kept coming, and she kept trying to get out of the way of his hands, though more often than not, she was just getting hit by his flesh hand as she tried to block him from hitting anything important. "Come on! Retaliate! You can't just wait your turn to fight!"

Amelia couldn't really do that, feeling overwhelmed by the barrage of fists that were coming her way. She could feel the wind from Edward's automail hand just barely brushing by her cheek, panting for breath as she just kept moving back until she felt something pressing against her heel and she cried out as she started to fall back, only to be caught by Edward before she actually fell. She looked down, seeing she had tripped over some kind of fence for a small bit of grass for a decorative tree the hotel had, and back up at Edward who had grabbed her by her wrist. Their eyes only met for a millisecond before he dropped her, and she landed with a grunt on the grass. "Ow!"

"Amelia, you can't just block everything." Edward scolded her, "You need to fight back. You can't let your enemy get away with just hitting you over and over again, you have to hit them back!"

"I couldn't exactly do that! You didn't give me any openings." She snapped as she started to push herself to stand up again.

"The guy you're fighting isn't going to give you any! You have to learn to take a hit." He said, giving her a little space as she stood up again. "The people we're fighting aren't going to give you any chance to fight back, so you have to start fighting like your life depends on it." Amelia ran her hands over her forearms, already able to feel the sore spots on her skin that would later become bruises. She glared up at him, her frustration starting to reach its peak, but she tried to calm herself down so she wouldn't blow up.

"Don't talk to me like I don't know what I'm doing. I know who we're up against." She wasn't enjoying any of this and being talked to like she was an idiot with someone pointing out the obvious wasn't helping her feel better about asking him to teach her.

"Then fight me like you mean it!" Edward snapped.

"I do mean it! You've been pissing me off since we started!" Amelia snapped back.

"Well, you really suck at it," Edward replied, which just made Amelia angrier.

"Fuck you!" She kicked at his leg, only to hear the metal clang from his automail. Edward looked up at her with a dry expression that silently said 'really?' since she seemed to keep forgetting which leg was flesh and which wasn't. She just grew more frustrated, "Goddamn leg!" She charged Edward, meaning to tackle him, but he easily stopped her by grabbing her shoulders and using acrobatics she hadn't really seen from him to jump over her and leave her running into the air. She just turned around and went after him again, only for him to grab her shoulders once more, but instead of having her run past him, he used his foot to knock her off balance, take her and pin her down onto the grass. She grunted as she tried to get up, but he pushed her back down with his automail arm across her shoulders, and she looked up to meet a very intense golden glare as he looked down at her.

"Get serious, Amelia!" He said at her, "You have to be ready for anything!"

"How am I supposed to learn if you don't let me get a chance?!" She tried to get up again, only for him to push her back down.

"Do you really think the homunculi will give you a chance?!" He snapped at her, "We're facing a bunch of inhuman bastards we know next to nothing about, and they don't go down easy! We've been lucky that they can't kill us, but that doesn't mean they won't when we've worn out our use to them. You have to be ready to fight for your life!"

"Get off of me!" She snarled, pushing Edward off of her and sitting up. Edward stood up, but she remained seated, taking a moment to breathe and calm down. It felt like she was so angry she couldn't see straight and being lectured by Edward wasn't helping. She just needed to breathe, calm down, compose herself, "You're not my enemy, so you don't have to be a dick about this."

"No, but I'm your teacher, and you don't know what we're up against with these guys," Edward replied.

"Oh, and you do?!" She snapped.

"No! I don't!" He snapped back, "So I have to be ready for anything, too!" He calmed down a little when he saw that yelling at her wasn't really helping her feel better and was just getting her angrier as he vented some of his own frustrations, "We all do. It sucks because we don't know what they're planning, or what it means to be a 'sacrifice,' and it pisses me off that we don't know anything about how to beat the homunculi or their father into the dirt like they deserve!" He knelt down, offering his hand to her, "All we can do right now is kick their asses, take advantage of the fact they won't kill us and get back up after we get knocked down." She hesitated before taking his hand again, and he sighed, "I'm not going to knock you over, we're moving on." She reached up and took it, letting him bring her to her feet again before he went over to another part of the asphalt, "Now, come on. Let's try again."

She sighed before she put up her fists, trying to focus and she came after Edward, he blocked her punches, and she managed to get one of his in her arm, undoubtedly bruising it. She went again and he blocked again, jabbing her in the side. She grunted as the two went back and forth for a while before Edward put up his hands and step back to get her to stop, "You're still too focused on defending yourself."

"I thought defending myself was the point." Amelia sighed exasperatedly.

"It's not, fighting isn't just trying to make sure you get hurt as little as possible, you're trying to hurt them, too," Edward said and got into another fighting stance. "Come on, again."

She let out a frustrated groan but went forward with it. She tried to punch him, kick him, jab him, but if she wasn't blocked, he managed to dodge her, "You're too slow!"

"It's my first time!" She shot back defensively, the two of them still moving across the ground, sharing punches and kicks and blocks and she knew she was coming out of this with a lot of bruises on her arms from trying to protect her face. "I'm still learning!"

"Well, learn faster! You move really slow for someone that's supposed to be a fast learner!" She just got more frustrated with him as he kept pointing out her flaws, and while she would be able to rationalize her inexperience making her a lousy fighter later, at the moment, she just didn't want to hear it.

"Well, you have a big mouth for such a little man!" She snapped. That set Edward off.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" He went to go at her, and she threw a punch, managing to land it right on his face and be just enough to knock him off guard and send him stumbling, though not off of his feet. She gasped, hissing through her teeth as she realized she had actually hit him at her full force. She could see him holding the spot she'd hit on his jaw.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…!" She came over, "I just got mad and… I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" Edward asked, his automail hand still over the spot she had landed, grinning at her, "That was great! You finally hit me! And it hurt, too! How's your hand?"

"Um…" She could already feel her knuckles throbbing. She had never actually managed to hit someone before, so now that she was processing, she could barely remember the sensation of her fingers hitting his skin, but more the solidity of the bone underneath it that poked at her fingers. "It hurts a little."

"You'll get used to it, that was a nice shot!" Edward said, and the two of them got into a fighting stance, "Let's keep going, see if you can do it again." She mirrored him and the two started again. She didn't really manage to land any more hits on him as the two kept going for a while longer, and eventually, she had to stop just due to being exhausted. Edward left to get them some water to drink while Alphonse, who had been watching everything the whole time, came over to Amelia.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Sore," She replied, "And tired. How did you guys learn to fight anyway?"

"Our teacher was always pretty tough on us." Alphonse said, "She gave us a test before she actually taught us any alchemy. She put me and Ed out on a deserted island in the middle of a lake, tossed a knife at us and told us we had to survive the month alone or she would send us home."

"What?! That's a little extreme."

"Probably, even more, when you know we were just about 7 and 8 when it happened."

"Who leaves a couple of kids alone on an island for a whole month?! You guys could have died!" She could hardly believe what she was hearing.

"Yeah, but that survival helped us to toughen up for her actual lessons," Alphonse pointed out, "And we weren't actually left alone. She had a friend stay on the island with us, though we never knew it was him. He put on a mask and came after us, acting like he was some crazy guy trying to protect 'his island' from invaders." He let out a small laugh, but Amelia still couldn't help feeling that wasn't the best reaction for a situation like that. It seemed really strange, but she could understand why he was bringing it up with her.

"So… I'm guessing you're telling me this to explain Edward's 'tough love' routine with all of this?" She asked.

"Well… Yeah, I guess." Alphonse said, "Honestly, this is a lot easier than what our Teacher did with us. He's actually going really easy on you."

"Oh, please don't tell me that." She groaned, already feeling a little inadequate from only landing one hit in the middle of all of this fighting, bending forward and hugging her knees as she rested her forehead on them, "God, I thought I was actually doing good…"

"Oh, no! You are, you are!" Alphonse said quickly, not realizing he was upsetting her, "I-I was just saying all of this so you know that— um— uh…" He stammered as he tried to figure out how to reword what he had said. "I-I just meant that… um… despite Edward going easy on you, you're progressing faster than I would have thought for your first lesson! Yeah! That's what I meant!" He let out a nervous laugh, and Amelia looked up from where she was sitting, giving him a dry expression.

"Really?" The single word was dripping with sarcasm and a distinct lack of trust in his words.

"Really!" Alphonse replied, "I mean, since this is your first time really learning how to fight, I wasn't thinking you would actually manage to land a hit on Ed, but you did! That's something to be excited about." He tried to encourage her, and she let out a sigh as she lifted her head up.

"You're sweet, Al." She said, reaching up and giving his metal shoulder a pat, "You're a terrible liar, but you're sweet."

"I'm not lying, I'm being serious." Alphonse insisted, "You're doing well, especially for a beginner. I really am impressed." He was being sincere, and she smiled up at him.

"Thanks, Alphonse." She said, and she looked up as Edward came back, handing her a cup of water that she was glad to drink from, "Alright, so I guess that's it, right?" She asked, thinking they were finished.

"Nope, not yet." Edward said, "Being an alchemist means you can make a weapon when you need it, and you don't really know how to handle anything, do you?"

Amelia shook her head, "Not really." She watched as Edward clapped his hands and from the ground a long metal rod started to come from the asphalt, watching as it changed its shape towards the end to turn into a somewhat gaudy-looking spear. He tossed it to Amelia, and she fumbled with catching it, hearing it clatter on the ground before she picked it back up. Edward made another one for himself, though it was without the spear tip as a handicap for her sake.

"Well, let's see how well you can pick up on learning this weapon," Edward said. And they continued with her teaching, him showing her the different ways a long-range weapon like a spear could be used to her advantage before the two of them started practicing with it.

---

Edward sat on the hotel couch, hearing the water running in the bathroom as Amelia had insisted on showering and wiping off the sweat on her skin after he tried to teach her how to fight that morning. He was going over everything he had been through with Amelia in her head. At the moment, her fighting skills were sub-par, but there was potential. When they had been using alchemy to make weapons, her taste wasn't his style, but she could make everything he could. He put that credit mostly towards her knowledge from the portal, but there was still potential for a lot more with her.

He picked up a towel and wiped off some more of his sweat before he looked back at his alchemical notes. His coded parts aside, he had made a separate page to focus on teaching her, and she had advanced pretty steadily since they had started, with a huge spike in her progress after she remembered her trip through the portal. Still, she was able to do a good deal of alchemy and figuring out the math she needed for transmutations and as much as people wanted to believe it could do that, the portal couldn't make you think faster. Fighting-wise… again, there was potential, but at the same time, they had only just started. She wasn't much for fighting, she was too scared of getting hurt by her opponent and hurting herself. She wasn't willing to take a lot of risks, which is something she can't hesitate to do in a fight, especially if it's one for her life — which it very well could be, given they were up against homunculi and inhuman monsters and whoever the military decided to send after them.

He sighed, sinking back into the couch as he stayed in his head, trying to think over everything he could do with Amelia to help her get better faster. The sound caught the attention of his younger brother, who managed to pull him out of his thoughts, "Everything okay, Brother?"

"Huh? Yeah, everything's fine." Edward replied, "I'm just thinking about how else I can teach Amelia when we're on the move."

"It can be a little difficult to learn how to fight while you're still traveling on a train," Alphonse said, and Edward nodded.

"Right, and she's going to have to pick it up pretty quickly if she's going to stand a chance, so I need to figure out the easiest way to do that…" He sat back, his hand going to his chin as he tried to think it over in his head. "With everything that's going on, we're bound to come across some kind of information that'll lead us to the little Xingese girl, so we're on a limited time…"

Alphonse let out a small laugh to himself that Edward heard, "What is it?"

"It's just kind of funny," Alphonse said, "Normally, you only get this worked up about alchemy."

"Well, this is part of her alchemy training." Edward reasoned.

"I know, but it's nice to see you taking it so seriously." Alphonse replied, "I remember you couldn't care less when you first found out that Amelia needed a teacher, and now you're putting together a schedule for her, and going easy on her."

"Well, she's never been in a fight before…" Edward tried to shrug it off, but he could hear where his younger brother was leading the conversation, "If I went as hard on her as Teacher went on us, she probably would have given up after a couple of minutes."

"But you still tried to give her a shot," Alphonse's tone was a little amused, "I think you like her, Brother."

"Of course, I like her," Edward replied, "If I didn't like her, I wouldn't have agreed to be her teacher."

It was only just then that he realized the water had stopped rushing through the pipes, and he glanced at the bathroom door. It wasn't open, but there was a good chance their voices had carried through the wood. It opened only a moment after he had finished speaking, revealing Amelia in her new clothes, her hair still wet as she let it hang down from her shoulders. She looked over at Edward as she came out, quirking up an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"Uh, nothing." Edward said, standing up, "You ready to go?"

"I just need to grab something." She replied as she went to her room, dropping off her towel by her bed before going to her backpack to pull out her phone. She knew it was basically useless here still, but she had left it to charge and now the battery was full again. She mostly just kept it now for a sense of comfort, even though she doubted she would be able to do anything with it that day.

She glanced back at the door of her room as she put her phone in her pocket. She had heard everything Edward said, and part of her was a little glad to know that he did like her, at least to some degree. As she went over to the dresser to grab a comb and brush out her hair, she briefly wondered if she could call Edward a friend. Immediately, she dismissed it. Edward was nice to her, and sure they found each other's company to be… tolerable, but that didn't mean they were friends. Edward had his own life, she had her own life, and once they were finished with each other they would go their separate ways.

...That's what the old Amelia would have said. Another excuse to deny a relationship. Kate wasn't that way with her, she never had been. She had been so friendly with her, always trying to include her in her interests, even when Amelia had forced herself not to care and dismiss all of them in the hopes of pushing her away. Now that she could remember the sacrifice she had made for her, someone who she thought would definitely choose to have taken her place if, given the chance, she had been rethinking her stance on friendships and relationships. Despite all of her pushing, Katie had insistently pushed back until she had wormed her way into a more permanent, if annoying, place in her life. Even still, she had genuinely tried to make Amelia her friend, and she couldn't really understand why at that moment. She had been nothing but mean, indifferent, dismissive, all of her old tricks to keep herself alone, but Katie had still stayed right with her. What had she seen in her? What made her worthy of a sacrifice like she had made? She still had trouble figuring it out, and those questions pestered her whenever she was alone for too long.

Now that she knew Katie had been a friend, a real one that had seen Amelia as a friend worth sacrificing for, she knew that was something that could exist for her here. In Amestris, no one knew what it meant to be from the Seymour family, the money that they had, the connections tied to them, none of that mattered here because it was all gone. Maybe she could let down her walls, just a little bit. Maybe she could call Edward a friend, and Alphonse too. The thought made her smile a little as she finished getting out the last of her tangles before stepping out of the room.

"Okay, I'm ready, let's go." They were off again to continue their search for May and her alkahestry.

---

After about an hour or so wandering around, asking the same questions to everyone about May's unusual cat, they found someone who recognized them from the previous day. The man mentioned he had seen a short girl with a cat that looked exactly like the one they had shown him, and they immediately found out where she was from him.

They were directed to a little house, something a bit out of the way, and the door was answered by a short, older woman, "Yes?"

"We're looking for this cat!" Edward said, not bothering to waste any time with her as he showed her the picture of May's panda cat that he had drawn, which still looked more like an alligator than a cute, fuzzy pet.

"Um, actually, it looks more like this," Alphonse said, showing one of the pictures he had drawn that was a bit more accurate. The woman looked over both of them before smiling.

"Of course, I'll be right back." She said, leaving them at the cracked door before coming back out with a little cat in her arms. It looked old, and had a sour expression on its face as it seemed it had been disturbed from a nap in the sunlight, "This is Pookie, she's the cat you're looking for, right? My neighbor mentioned you were looking for a cat like her."

Edward and Alphonse looked at the black and white cat in the woman's arms, and Amelia could easily see the similarities. The cat had black ears and black spots around its eyes… it could be their panda cat, but at the same time it most definitely, clearly wasn't.

"Yeah, you're right…" Edward said as he glanced up at the cat from his picture.

"It does look like her." Alphonse agreed as they looked at the cat in the woman's arms.

"Um, is Pookie your cat, ma'am?" Amelia asked her.

The woman nodded with a sweet smile on her face, "Yes, indeed she is. She's a darling girl, isn't she?" The cat let out an uncaring sneeze as it was mentioned.

Edward glanced at Alphonse and Amelia, all of them turning away for a moment, "That's definitely not her!" Edward hissed out, clearly trying to keep his voice down so he wouldn't upset the elderly woman.

"Yeah, I know!" Alphonse agreed, just as frustrated as his older brother.

"I told you that doing this two days in a row was a bad idea." Amelia whispered to them, "We should just go to the library and look at alkahestry there, it's obvious she's not in town anymore, especially not now!"

"But we can't just up and leave her." Alphonse said, gesturing to the older woman, "Wouldn't that be rude?"

"We can't afford to waste our time here humoring some old lady and her stupid cat!" Edward snapped in return.

"We can at least put her down gently." Amelia said before getting both of the boys to turn around, smiling at the old woman, "Thank you very much for showing us your cat, ma'am, but it's unfortunately not the one we're looking for."

"Are you sure? I don't think there's another cat like Pookie in the city." The woman said.

"Well, there is, and we're actually looking for the little girl who owns the cat. As much as we might wish it, a woman in her 50's isn't exactly a little girl anymore, right?" She said, obviously making her sound younger than she actually was.

"Oh, stop." The woman blushed, smiling happily, "I'm nowhere near my 50's anymore. You're such a terrible liar."

"What? You're really not? I could have sworn you weren't a day over 55." Amelia continued to butter her up, the older woman eating it up easily as she waved off her flattering but was still obviously pleased, "Well, in any case, Pookie's a darling cat, but not the one we're looking for anymore."

"Oh, it's alright. I understand." She said, "You kids go off and have fun looking. You're welcome to come back and play with Pookie anytime you like, though. She just loves having people over." In all honesty, the cat looked like it couldn't care less and was more concerned with getting back to napping.

"We'll keep that in mind, thank you," Amelia said, and the three of them turned around. She waited until she heard the sound of the front door shutting before she turned back to the boys, "And that is how you let someone down gently."

"A day over 55? That woman was well into her 60s." Edward said.

"Sure, but a little lying compliment never hurts at getting people to understand your point of view." Amelia replied, "Obviously she was in her 60s, but being told she looked younger made her happy. She's an old woman living with God knows how many cats, she's using her pets as an excuse to have company over so people will compliment her hosting and cooking skills— because you know a woman like that is going to have tea and cakes ready for her guests. She wants to be flattered because she's probably not getting any compliments from an old and ornery husband who can't even be bothered to come to the door when guests are knocking."

The Elric brothers looked at Amelia with wide eyes as she finished talking, and she glanced at the two of them, seeing the stunned looks they shared, "What? Wasn't it obvious?"

"Maybe she was lonely, but I wouldn't have gone that far in detail…" Edward said.

"You could tell all of that just by talking to her?" Alphonse asked.

"How did you even know she has a husband?"

"She had a wedding ring." Amelia replied, "And I could smell the cats from the other side of the door, plus all that plush furniture inside? You didn't see that purple couch with that burgundy rug? Or those white curtains hanging up on the window to give the whole place soft lighting from the natural sunlight? It's all meticulously cleaned, there's not a single strand of fur on it. She did it expecting someone to come over and sit on that couch and talk to her a while."

"We weren't even looking at her furniture when she opened the door." Edward said, still shocked, but also impressed, "You noticed all of that in just that moment before she closed the door to get her cat? I had no idea you were so observant."

Amelia shrugged it off, "I'm kind of surprised you guys weren't paying that kind of attention. How else do you get around talking to strangers if you're not taking in how they look?"

"We kind of just… talk? Have you been doing that with everyone we met today?" Edward asked.

"Sure, you get all kinds of things just from looking at someone's clothes." Amelia shrugged.

"Like what?" Edward asked.

"Well, we could start with your super gawdy coat, for example," Amelia started, immediately making Edward scowl, "Because as gross as it is for you to go walking around in that thing, it speaks to a lot of money — which you have because you're a state alchemist with a massive research grant you can spend however you like. On top of that, you're wearing it with black leather jackets and pants, which speak to trying to stand out even more, which speaks to some kind of insecurity, probably about your height given that you like to wear platform boots." She said, glancing down at Edward's boots as they walked. Although Edward wasn't wearing his red coat now, he was still wearing that black trench coat he had gotten from their time with Envy since his red one was in the wash for the time being, but her examination of him from his clothing alone was spot on.

"Well, you know me." Edward said, "So, of course, you would know all about that."

"Dude, I knew that the day I met you." Amelia scoffed. "The only one I wouldn't be able to figure out is Al," She said, pointing her thumb at the younger Elric brother, "After all, no one just wears a suit of armor if not to stand out and be all super obnoxious about it. But Al, the last thing you want is attention, right?" Alphonse nodded in agreement, "And you're not obnoxious at all, if anything you're one of the kindest guys I'd ever met. And I only know this now because I know you, on day one I couldn't really figure you out because your clothing didn't match your lack of an attitude. You were a little mystery to me, but like, a fun one."

"Oh," Alphonse seemed kind of pleased from that, standing up a little straighter and walking a little more proudly than he had a moment ago. "Thanks, Amelia."

Edward still scowled at Amelia, "Well, whatever. Maybe we can make good use of your observational skills at the library." He grinned smugly, "You can pick out the books we research."

"Ha, ha, real funny." Amelia scoffed, "We'll ask the librarians or something, I'm sure they have a system we'll make good use of." She continued walking with him, until she realized what he had just said, "Wait, we're going to the library? You're done looking around for May?"

"Well… I figured you were right. It's been a couple of days, and she left about three days ago," Edward reasoned, stretching a little bit as he walked, his automail shoulder clicking as he stretched his arm, "The chance she's still in the city is pretty low, especially if she's traveling with Scar."

"Yeah… what do you think her connection is with him?" Amelia asked, curious how a Xingese alkahestrist managed to befriend a mass murderer.

"Who knows? Maybe she's teaching it to him or something." Edward said, "In any case, she's not here to teach us, so we have to look to whatever resources we have available." He reached into his pants pocket, pulling out his silver watch with a grin, "And this should get us access to all the books we need on any subject we want."

"I would expect all the books would be open to the public?" Amelia questioned.

"Sure, some are, but the more advanced alchemical texts are actually under military use. You can't just check them out if you're a civilian." Edward said, putting his watch back into his pocket.

"What? Why?" Amelia was surprised that Amestris, a major alchemical power that had a skeevy scheme to recruit as many alchemists as possible, was limiting that alchemical knowledge to the public.

"I don't know, it's been that way for a while now," Edward said.

"Doesn't that seem a little counterintuitive to… to you-know-who's plans?" Amelia asked, bringing up a good point to the two of them, "I mean if they want to have a bunch of alchemists at their beck and call to be sacrifices, why not make as much alchemical knowledge available as possible?"

"Well… They could be doing it to entice alchemists to become state-certified." Edward said.

"But only one person gets certified every year, right? The program doesn't approve every single alchemist that tries out."

"That's true…" Edward muttered, not really liking the points that Amelia was making. He had never really considered that blocking off that knowledge would make it harder for them to find sacrifices to use in whatever their plans were.

"Maybe it's so people won't find out about the Philosopher's Stone," Alphonse suggested, getting their attention, "If people found out how it's made, they might not pursue it anymore, and an alchemist that doesn't pursue the most valuable alchemical artifact there is probably isn't much use to them."

"Oh. Yeah, good point." Amelia agreed, "I'm sure Doctor Marcoh wasn't the first to figure out how it was made, other alchemists must have known, or maybe there was even someone in his team at the lab that helped him and published their notes the same way he did?"

"Maybe we can find them at the library," Edward said, "Proof that their plan isn't as full proof as they hope."

"It might be a hole worth exploiting." Amelia offered, and Edward let out a small hum in agreement and a nod.

"We'll do that, and we'll look up whatever we can find about alkahestry." He said, and Amelia nodded in agreement to that idea.

---

Their visit to the library wasn't exactly fruitful… Amelia, Alphonse, and Edward all separated after speaking to a librarian that got them any book they had that mentioned alchemy across the globe and alkahestry, but there was no one text that specifically focused on alkahestry. There were books that talked about alchemical theory, alchemical practices around the globe and the differences to Amestrian alchemy, but nothing that was only about alkahestry. It was frustrating, to say the least. When their few books they had gotten didn't quite get the results they wanted, Amelia decided to expand the search to include medicinal alchemy, since that was alkahestry's main use. The mentions she found of it in alchemical texts were few and far between, which didn't really help things.

Alphonse had taken to studying on a table with a slowly growing pile of books, Edward was glued to the shelves of the medicinal alchemy section to search through however many offered alternative practices to traditional Amestrian alchemy. Amelia was browsing some of the other shelves, flipping through medical books and trying to figure out if there was something they could use, but with little result. She found a few things here and there, used a bookmark to mark the pages for a later time, but nothing that really seemed to help them beyond the occasional mention of alkahestry.

But she found herself a little distracted as she found one book that talked about how medicinal alchemy could be understood more simply as one compares the basic building blocks of humans to the rest of the world. It talked about how proteins were interchangeable with other amino acids in the body and could easily be used to help close wounds a little faster if there was something dire or used for cosmetic purposes such as smoothing out scar tissue. She found herself engrossed in the little details, all the while thinking how handy it would have been to have this information when she found herself faced with Hughes upon his death. Normally, thinking about that moment would have horrified her, but now she found it as a good motivation to take up as much information about this as she could.

She had read through a couple of chapters before one sentence casually mentioned alkahestry, and she realized why she had been reading this book in the first place. She closed it and sighed, knowing this wasn't going to help in their alkahestry quest, but she did place a bookmark in it to make sure she convinced Edward to let her check it out later. She wanted to learn more about the medicinal uses of alchemy. She tucked the book under her arm and gathered the other ones she had picked up to put them away. She glanced over at the clock that stood in the middle of the library, seeing that an hour and a half had already passed since their arrival.

"I guess time flies when you're having fun." She said quietly to herself, looking down at the textbook she had put under her arm with a small smile. As she walked through the library shelves, putting back the few books she had pulled, she wondered how much experience Edward had in the field of bio-alchemy that she could learn some kind of medical care from it.

As she rounded a corner to put away another book, she came upon Edward with his little nest of books. Varying short towers of books were laying on the floor around him as she put away her last book, holding onto the one she wanted to check out as she watched Edward glare at the book in his hands, letting out a frustrated sigh before adding it to the book tower in front of him (tower was really a generous description, it was only about five books high). "No use," He muttered. He glanced over at Amelia, noticing her there, "Hey, find anything?"

"Nothing more than a footnote, unfortunately." She admitted, "I'm guessing you didn't do much better?"

"Barely a paragraph or two in most of these, and that's honestly the most I've found," Edward said, starting to pick them up and start bringing them down to put them back, Amelia came over to help him with that, picking up the remaining four or so books and following him as he started to walk back to where they were supposed to be. "Why is there so little information about alkahestry?"

"Who knows?" Amelia shrugged, "Maybe it's in some of the more advanced books? You said you were the only one that could get access to those, right?"

"These are the more advanced books that only I have access to," Edward said, shrugging with his group of books under his arms. "Not much luck."

"This is kind of ridiculous," Amelia said as she and Edward started shelving the books back in place. "I mean, it's like they only want you to learn Amestrian alchemy… which now that I'm saying it out loud, kind of seems like a good advantage for those guys to give themselves." She sighed, "They've made it pretty difficult to find an interest in other kinds of alchemy aside from this one."

"I'm not even sure a lot of these books consider it different from alchemy," Edward said as they moved together, "Most of them just mention it as a practice of medicinal alchemy and not much else like they're a synonymous name but everything we saw says they're nothing alike."

"Right, but why hasn't anyone ever tried to get more information about other alchemical practices?" Amelia asked as she shelved the last of Edward's books that she carried.

"You want my opinion?" Edward asked, and before Amelia could answer, he continued, "We've become arrogant. Amestris is a major alchemical power, from that fact alone, it would be easy to come up with the line of logic that we don't need to learn anything else because we're the best at it."

"That does sound pretty arrogant. But surely not every alchemist is like that."

"Well, the information on alkahestry is so limited, I'm starting to think they won't let us think anything but that," Edward grumbled. "This search is getting us nowhere."

"We might just be better off going to Xing and finding someone to teach us," Amelia said, mildly joking but partly serious.

"It'd be hard," Edward sighed as he shelved his last book, "Crossing the desert in automail sounds hot…" Amelia remembered their last trip out into the desert. She remembered the disgustingly scorching desert sun beating down on them, sweating like mad under what little cover she had from the sun, as well as just being miserable all the way to the Xerxes ruins. Though, that part wasn't so bad, in her mind. They had a little pool of water to drink and refresh themselves, and she remembered Edward stepping in to cool his automail… and coming out shirtless.

"It might not be all bad," She commented as she noticed a shadow suddenly moving over her and Edward, the pair looking up to see a familiar face sitting up above the easily 6-foot-tall library shelf, with enough room that they could see his neck and chin comfortably. His bald head almost sparkled in the light of the library, and Amelia squinted a little as she looked up at her former teacher looming above them from the opposite side of the library shelves.

The sight of him was enough to shock Edward backward and he fell, landing on his backside, "Gah! What the…?!"

"Ah-hah." The Major seemed pleased to see him, while Amelia stood by just sort of staring at her old teacher, surprised that he was there at all. He grunted as he pushed the library shelves forward, making her jump back as he pushed them apart enough that he could step in between them, "There you are, Edward Elric. I've found you." He spoke casually as he moved the massive bookshelves that easily would have weighed a few hundred pounds as if they were a set of double-doors, even closing them back together behind him once he was on the other side.

"You—! Damn it, Major! What do you want?!" Edward snapped up at him.

He was met with a meaty finger to the Major's lips and a soft voice saying, "Shh. This is a library, you know. Quiet!"

"Teacher, what are you doing here?" Amelia asked, keeping her voice at that reasonably soft level that was appropriate for the library, and he moved to kneel down so that he could speak to both of them in a semi-private manner between the bookshelves.

Still, even when he was on his knees, his size was impossible to ignore, and for all his attempts to be inconspicuous, he stuck out like a sore thumb far too easily as he loomed over them while he whispered, "I understand you're after a certain Xingese girl who possesses a strange black-and-white cat."

"Yeah… but how do you know that?" Edward asked, a little suspicious since he was certain he hadn't asked the Major about it, or that the information could have gotten to him very easily.

"Colonel Mustang informed me, I'm running errands for him today." He answered, which eased Edward's mind and piqued his interest. They had only mentioned the girl to him the other day, had he already found something out? "The word is the girl is headed north. According to an eyewitness, she departed by train from East City very recently."

Edward grinned at the news, "North, huh? Now that's some information I can act on!" He clenched his fists, clearly excited to get started and get moving on their task. At least asking that little girl would be easier than crossing the desert! Way easier! He looked up at Armstrong, "I appreciate it, Major. And thank the Colonel for me, too." He held out a hand to Amelia for her to help him up, and she reached for his automail hand to do just that.

"Hold on a second, there's more," Armstrong interrupted, leaving Amelia awkwardly holding onto Edward's outreached hand as he reached into a pocket in his uniform to pull out an envelope that had been sealed in red wax with a pattern that—oddly enough—looked just like the Major's singular curl of hair, and the curls of his mustache, holding it out to Edward, "Take this."

"What is it?" Edward asked, reaching out for it and glancing at the unusual seal before seeing that it was addressed to "My Sister" on the front, with a rose stationary pattern in the corner of the letter.

"It's a letter of introduction," Armstrong answered, "But it might not be much use." He had a grimly serious expression his face as he looked at Edward, "First thing, see her."

"Her who?" Edward looked up at him, still confused. "What do you mean?"

"Even further north than Northern Command, you'll find an officer nicknamed 'The Northern Wall of Briggs' who defends our border." Armstrong continued, and Amelia's eyes widened as she recognized the name of the post where the Major's sister was supposed to be, "Major General Armstrong."

"Your sister?" She was actually going to get to meet her. She could easily see her being an imposing woman if she was anything like Strongine or Amue, and what little information she had about the eldest Armstrong sister meant she would probably be nothing like the other sisters she had met thus far. Maybe that meant they would get along better?

The Major nodded in answer to her question, "Yes, you'll want to speak to her first before Northern Command. She has soldiers under her command that know the terrain better than anyone else and can easily find any hiding spot where the girl might be."

"That's perfect, Major." Edward said, grasping Amelia's hand a little more tightly and she pulled him to stand up, releasing him, "We need to get ready." He grinned at her, eager as ever before starting to walk off out of the aisle to find Alphonse.

"Okay," Amelia went to go with him but was stopped when she felt the Major's hand on her shoulder.

"Just a moment, Amelia. I'd like to speak with you privately," Amelia was a little concerned, and she glanced back at Edward who looked more curious than anything.

"Um… alright." She looked back at Edward with a shrug, "I'll catch up with you guys in a minute, okay?"

"Okay, if you're sure." Edward offered to stay, but she nodded her head.

"I'm sure, I'm good." She said, and with that Edward left to go find Alphonse before she looked back at her teacher, "What is it?"

The grim expression on his face hadn't changed much as he looked her dead in the eyes, seeming to take a moment to find the courage to speak, "Amelia, when you first arrived in Amestris, you claimed you didn't come here alone, correct?"

"Yeah?" She turned to face him completely, unsure what this was about.

"I was also informed by Colonel Mustang that you have opened the portal," Amelia was a little surprised he had shared that information, but she nodded in confirmation. His expression didn't seem to change from its grim seriousness, "Amelia… Did you sacrifice your friend to pay your toll so you could gain that alchemical ability?" Amelia's eyes widened.

"Of course I didn't!" She snapped, which was quickly met with shushing from someone on the second floor above them and she quieted herself, "Of course not, Major. I wouldn't do that to someone else, I'm not that mean." He put his hands on both of her shoulders, moving to look at her in the eyes.

"Then look at my eyes and say that again. Tell me you did not sacrifice your friend for the toll." He said, and Amelia was a little surprised by his seriousness about this, and it made her uneasy. She couldn't meet his eyes while he had that intense gaze, and she found herself looking at the floor in front of her.

"I… not on purpose. She sacrificed herself." She said quietly, which finally caused the Major's expression to change to one of slight shock, "It's a long story… but the short version is that neither of us had a… a gate in us before we came here. She sacrificed herself so I could have one." She didn't like remembering it, her time in the portal having all of that information stuffed into her at once, or the memory of Kate giving herself up as if Amelia would be able to repay the favor in an instant, though she looked so scared.

The Major looked at her as she spoke, intensely reading her expressions before he sighed in relief, "I see." Throughout all of that, Amelia's expressions read as genuine to him. He was certain she was telling the truth, he could even see the guilt on her face as she mentioned that her friend had done that for her. Even if she was a great liar, there would have been a small tell in the way her eyes would focus on his own, but that straight stare wasn't present as she spoke, and it was enough to give him some comfort that she wasn't the kind of person that Colonel Mustang suggested she might be, "I'm sorry for asking, but I had to be certain of what had happened."

"Why?" Amelia asked.

"For my own reasons, truthfully I was worried about what your intentions might be in learning alchemy." Armstrong admitted, "And knowing that you had opened the portal, and what the cost of that might have been… I was concerned."

Amelia frowned a little, "Major, if you were concerned I was lying, don't you think it would have been really easy for me to lie again just now?" She knew what she said was the truth, but she still questioned his judgment. "What if I just fooled you completely? You trust too easily, Major. That's going to really hurt you one day."

"Perhaps, but it will not for today." He pulled his hands away from her shoulders, moving to stand up, "Now, I'm sure you must be going. I'm sure Edward Elric is waiting for you."

"What, that's it? You don't want to catch up or anything?" Amelia had been hoping that, since he was here, they could have some time to talk, and she could tell him about how she was progressing in her alchemy training, maybe even get some pointers from him.

The Major's mustache curled up in a smile, his large hand reaching down to pat her on the head, "Perhaps another time, when your alchemy teacher isn't so eager to leave, though it does make me happy to know you still call me Teacher." He said, when he pulled his hand away, she reached up to try and fix her hair that had gotten a little mussed from his massive hand petting her head that was probably just big enough to be crushed in his palm if he wanted to do that.

"Alright… I'll call you or something." Amelia said, smiling up at him before heading out of the library aisle to go to the table where Alphonse was supposed to be sitting. Instead, she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of Edward with his hands raised, and two men in black suits pointing guns at his head.

"What the fuck?!" She almost shouted, "I wasn't even gone for five minutes! What did you do?!"

"Why do you assume this was my fault?!" Edward snapped back over his shoulder, which only resulted in one of the guns getting cocked next to his skull.

"You will step away from Master Selim." One of the men said to Edward in a cold voice.

"No, wait! Don't shoot him!" A small voice quickly piped up, and Amelia looked over to see a young boy with dark hair, and a nice-looking little suit.

"Master Selim…?" Amelia repeated the title with confusion, wondering just who this kid was. Coming from the land of the rich, it wasn't unheard of for young children to have a couple of bodyguards since there were always people that wanted a ransom from rich families, but these guards didn't seem like the former-military mercenary types you'd hire for something like that.

"Are you Selim Bradley?" Edward asked, looking down at the little boy.

"Selim? The Fuhrer's son?" Alphonse couldn't really believe it, either. The son of the Fuhrer, who they just saw the other day, who just threatened them the other day, was right there in front of them.

"Yeah, that's me!" He beamed up at them. He looked around Edward, "And you're the Fullmetal Alchemist's apprentice, right?"

"Um… yeah?" Amelia was a little surprised he'd heard of her as he came around Edward, still smiling. He honestly looked a little star-struck, was he a fan of Edward's or something?

"That's so awesome!" He beamed, "I can't believe I got to meet all of you here!" He reached for Edward's automail hand, "Have you had lunch yet? Come to my house!"

"Uh, well we were kind of in the middle of something—" Edward was cut off as Selim pulled him along before he could finish speaking, with his suited bodyguards following behind him, and a third one putting their hand on Amelia's shoulder and gently ushering her along to join them with Alphonse in tow.

---

Before any of them knew it, Alphonse, Edward, and Amelia were all sitting across from Selim Bradley, and the Fuhrer's wife at the presidential estate with a few cups of hot tea presented to them.

"...How did this happen? We were supposed to be heading north." Edward whispered to Amelia, who gave him a subtle shrug.

"How should I know?" She whispered back.

"I'm so sorry," Mrs. Bradley spoke up, drawing their attention away from each other for a moment, "It's just that Selim's been in awe of you for such a long time, Edward."

Edward's eyes widened in surprise, "Huh? Me? Really?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it, either," Amelia said, giving Edward the side-eye, which caused him to glare right back at her, a snarky comment on the tip of his tongue.

"Selim, are you interested in alchemy?" Alphonse asked, trying to shift the subject away from a potential fight in front of the fuhrer's family.

"Yes! My dream is to learn how to practice it, and after that, I want to become a state alchemist, just like you, Ed!" He said in that excited way that kids talk about what they love.

"Aw, just like me?" Edward said, purposefully putting on a fake-humble act to make Amelia mad, earning him an elbow in the side. "Ow…!"

"And then I'll be able to help my father out as well!" Selim continued, the sentence catching the three of them off guard. Selim's mother just smiled at him, proud at his clear devotion, but the other three knew a little better. They knew the Fuhrer wasn't what he appeared to be, and while they couldn't fault Selim for wanting to be a good son to what appeared to be a good father, they knew that their ignorance was the reason for their happiness and pride. If they knew who Bradley truly was, their lives would change dramatically, potentially uprooting this happiness they had now.

"Yeah, Fuhrer Bradley… tell me, Selim. Do you get along with your father? You like him?" Edward asked, a little curious about what role this homunculus played, but also unable to help feeling a little bad for the Bradley family.

"Yeah, of course!" Selim replied.

"And what kind of man is he?" Edward continued asking.

"An amazing man! His job is more demanding than anyone else's in the world! He spends all day, every day thinking about the people of this country!" Selim answered with the confidence of a child that was certain of that small world everyone had when they were young, the kind that believed their parents were the best in the world because they fought off the monsters under the bed and in the closet and because the food they made was always the highest level of gourmet. It was a confidence Amelia, Edward, and Alphonse had all shared for their own parents not too long ago, though knowing who Selim's father actually was made it hard to listen to his loving description about the man.

"Of course he does," Edward replied with a forced smile, and Amelia smiled with him.

"The Fuhrer's duties must keep him very busy all the time," Alphonse commented.

"I imagine it's difficult for a man like that to keep up with his work and his family at the same time, even when he was younger?" Amelia said, a little curious as to how the Fuhrer managed to bring in such a loving son and a seemingly-happy wife.

Mrs. Bradley let out a small sigh, "That is true, it's something he always insists upon." She answered, "He's determined to work himself ragged. At his age, I'd prefer if he took it a little easier." She looked away, her expression changing to one of concern and that anxiety one tends to have about people they love doing something that isn't necessarily dangerous, but potentially harmful. "It's nothing new, he's always been devoted to his work," She smiled, "That's what he's good at. But then, where women are concerned, I'm afraid he's a bit of an oaf. The first time we met, he made me so angry that I actually slapped him!" She let out a laugh at the memory, clearly now something she could laugh about, though the rest of the group didn't share the sentiment. Picturing a young Bradley getting slapped across the face by a young Mrs. Bradley… Amelia wouldn't be surprised if the homunculus had the social skills of a hermit, "But it worked out for the best. He asked me out after that, and our first date was amazing!" She was clearly giddy as she thought about that memory, which made it a little strange for all involved. Amelia suspected someone else probably had a hand in making their first date 'amazing' so that she would fall for the Fuhrer and call him her husband.

"Oh, sorry," She paused, "Listen to me, babbling like a little school girl." She laughed a little at herself, and the three of them just tried to smile and seem comfortable. It was a little sad to know that the Bradley family was seemingly a genuine family, with a loving wife and son waiting for their busy world leader father and husband at home every day, and Fuhrer Bradley probably couldn't care less about them. He was a homunculus working towards a specific goal, and they were more than likely just disposable pawns for a backdrop of illusion to keep the people of Amestris happy and under the belief that they're safe.

Before anyone could come up with anything to say about Mrs. Bradley's story, the parlor doors opened to reveal Fuhrer Bradley walking into the room. Amelia, Edward, and Alphonse immediately became tense, going on high alert at the sight of him. He seemed imposing in the open doorway, standing at the soldier's attention with his sword at his hip, his one green eye staring down at them from his entry. It was only for a second, but it was long enough that Amelia felt a fearful chill go down her spine at the sight of the man.

"Dad's home!" Selim happily shouted, the intimidating facade breaking as Fuhrer Bradley smiled, watching his son rush over to greet him with a hug, "Hello Daddy!"

"Hi, Dear." Mrs. Bradley greeted him from her seat, smiling at the sight of Selim and his father together.

"Well, hello there, my little one!" Bradley greeted Selim, returning his hug and patting his head.

"What are you doing back home?" Mrs. Bradley asked.

"I had some free time for a change, so I thought I'd check in on my family." He answered, his hand still resting on his son's head as he spoke to his wife, Selim just looking up at him with a bright smile as if he was the best thing in the world to see. Bradley turned to Edward and company on the couch, "And I also happened to hear that the Fullmetal Alchemist was paying us a visit."

"Hello, sir." Edward greeted stiffly.

"Long time, no see." Alphonse greeted, trying to seem casual for the sake of the Bradley family, though it wasn't easy. Amelia could feel her hands shaking and she tried to slip one under her leg so it wouldn't be as obvious. Edward saw this and shifted a little closer so their shoulders brushed together, trying to silently let her know that he would keep her safe. Her hands didn't stop shaking, but she was able to relax a little and smile at the man, looking just a little less pale than when he entered the room.

"Long time? I just saw you all at Central Command, right?" He asked with a laugh, which they half-heartedly joined in. It was so strange to see this persona, the friendly and joking old man that Amelia had shared tea with during her first days in Amestris, who was nothing like the homunculus that had threatened their lives.

"Why don't you come sit with us and have some tea?" Mrs. Bradley offered, "We were just having a little talk about how Selim managed to wrangle them all to come over." She stood up to go and get an extra cup for her husband, Bradley making his way over to the chair Selim had been sitting in a moment before, taking the cup his wife had offered with a smile and a seemingly gentle touch to her hand as he took the saucer from her.

"Yes, it's quite a surprise to see you all here in my house." He said, taking the cup and sipping from it.

"I met up with them when I was returning the books that Teacher told me to look at," Selim answered.

"So, you ran into these three at the library, Selim?" He asked his son.

"Yep!" Selim happily answered, Bradley smiled at him and sipped from his cup again.

"Your teacher told you to borrow a book? What about the rest of your class?" Amelia spoke up for the first time since she had arrived, trying to keep the subject away from Bradley for a moment.

"Oh, Selim doesn't attend school." Mrs. Bradley spoke up, "We have him tutored at home, it's a bit safer for him here." She smiled, "We make sure they're all the best at their subjects, we want to make sure he has the best possible education."

"Oh, I see…" It wasn't too different from how she was raised, and she looked over at Selim, "Do you like your tutors, Selim? Have you ever thought about attending school?"

"Sometimes," Selim answered, "But it's okay, I have friends in my fencing class that I see all the time, so I'm not lonely! Plus, Father's working so hard to make sure I get the best education possible so I can help him when I'm old enough."

"That must be so nice," Amelia said, trying to seem polite, trying to shift into the act she would use at her mother's parties among her friends. She would be polite, she would be easy to converse with, she would make it look like she wasn't as terrified as she was, "Are you very good at fencing, Selim?"

"Yeah! Maestro Wells says I'm one of the best in his class!" Selim replied excitedly, "Have you ever fenced before? You should really try it, it's a lot of fun!" Amelia just smiled, thinking Selim would talk more about fencing and fill the silence, but instead, he only smiled back, "I always enjoy it." He had mastered the art of not talking too much, a skill Amelia had also learned pretty early on when she had tried to talk about her interests with her mother's friends and she always ended up cutting her off before she could finish. She wasn't sure if that was Selim's experience or not, but she could tell she wasn't going to be able to get him to talk very much.

There was a beat of silence between the group, and Fuhrer Bradley decided to break it, "You're very quiet, Fullmetal. Are you wondering why he doesn't look like us?"

"No, sir. It didn't cross my mind." Edward answered. There was no need to wonder, they already knew about Selim when Doctor Knocs mentioned it to them.

"Well, it's because we aren't related by blood," Bradley answered the question anyway, taking a moment to put down his teacup on the table in front of him.

"We were unable to have any children of our own, so we adopted Selim and he's our son now." Mrs. Bradley said, and Amelia had to wonder about that conversation between the two of them. Did Bradley, the homunculus with no reproductive capabilities, attempt to go through fertility treatments to keep up his facade as a man wanting to be a father? Maybe he had Mrs. Bradley think the fertility problem was with her, rather than him, so she would be treated instead. Amelia couldn't deny she was curious about just how deep the Fuhrer's lies went among his own family.

"I'm proud of my boy," Bradley said, reaching up to pat his son's head, smiling, "He's grown into a fine, devoted son."

"Would you cut it out already, Dad? You're embarrassing me." Selim said with a bashful smile.

"But it's the truth!" Bradley replied, chuckling as he kept his son close, Selim giggling as his father kept him close enough, patting his head and mussing up his son's dark hair. Meanwhile, Edward, Alphonse, and Amelia could only feel sympathy and sorrow for the Bradley family, being brought into this lie about who Bradley truly was, that they were being led on to believe in a humanity that wasn't there. While in front of them, the image of a giggling son in between his smiling parents would be a sweet one, all they could think about was how this family was completely ignorant to the monster their patriarch was.

Bradley turned to look at the group, seeing their sullen expressions, "What's wrong, Elric?" He called out Edward specifically, getting Selim's attention to get him to look over at him as well.

"Oh! I-It's just that we never see you, except at the Command Center!" Alphonse quickly spoke up, making an excuse for their behavior that would be believable to the Bradley family, "So, this is kind of… you know…"

"It's a side of you we're not used to seeing, that's all." Edward continued on with the excuse, smiling and making it seem like he was shaking off his feelings, and Amelia smiled and nodded.

"I see." Fuhrer Bradley's gaze moved over them, his single green eye staring them down with that icy stare they had seen in his office when they were introduced to him as the homunculus Wrath, "But as you can tell, even a man like me has a family waiting for him at home." The three of them tensed up at the mention of it, "I'm sure, of course, it's quite different from yours. You had that childhood friend of yours come by not too long ago, right? A girl named Winry Rockbell?" Edward tensed up, gritting his teeth as he tried to hold in the urge to yell at Bradley to keep her out of it, to leave Winry and Pinako and the rest of his family alone. His fists clenched at his sides on the couch, and Amelia let her arm gently touch his to try and offer him a reminder to keep his cool. In the middle of this subtle threat, Mrs. Bradley and Selim seemed perfectly normal. They didn't realize that Fuhrer Bradley had just threatened the lives of the people they care about. Edward's hands relaxed a little bit as he felt Amelia's arm against his, but he couldn't look the Fuhrer in the eye after that comment.

Seemingly satisfied with what he had seen, Bradley moved to stand up and made his way around the chair to walk out, "Aw, Daddy you're leaving already?" Selim asked, clearly disappointed he only got to stay for a short few minutes.

"Yes, you know I have duties to get back to, Selim," Bradley answered with a friendly smile and a small chuckle. Selim turned to watch his father go with a sad frown, his mother smiling as she saw off her husband. He paused at the spot just outside the door, speaking with his back facing them, "Please, make yourself at home." He turned around with a smile, his eyepatch facing them more than the smiling expression, "You're welcome anytime, state alchemist." Edward grimaced and Amelia shrunk a little under his smile. It was hard not to feel a little nervous at the sight of this man that could probably have them killed in an instant, if not kill them himself just as quickly. She glanced back at Edward to see a similar expression of nerves and unease from the invitation.

They would definitely not be coming back if it could be helped.

After another hour, with their bellies full of tea and finger sandwiches that had been prepared last minute, the trio left the Bradley house. Selim was understandably sad to see them go, having wanted to spend more time with his hero, but he knew they couldn't stay forever. Edward shook his hand to say goodbye, and so did Alphonse and Amelia. They shared goodbyes with Mrs. Bradley, thanking her for her hospitality and treating them to a nice little lunch. She thanked them for their time and spending it with her son.

Mrs. Bradley and Selim walked them out, waving goodbye as they started to make their way off of the estate.

"Please come back and visit us soon, okay?" Selim said as he waved goodbye.

The three of them all waved back to him with smiles on their faces, "We will! See you later!" Edward said before he, Alphonse, and Amelia all turned around to make their way out. Their smiles falling now that their backs were turned on the Bradley family. Once they had walked far enough that they would be out of earshot, Amelia glanced back at the family over her shoulder, still seeing them wave as they left.

Despite their discomfort and nerves that they had when Fuhrer Bradley had joined them, the family themselves had been delightful. Selim had been so full of questions about alchemy and was so eager to hear stories about Edward and his travels. His mother had been genuinely kind, always making sure their teacups were filled if they were thirsty and had some food if they were hungry. They were a good couple of people, which made the reality of their situation that much sadder, the thought weighing heavily on Amelia's mind as she glanced back at them.

"It's heartbreaking, isn't it?" She asked the two brothers, Edward nodding in agreement as she knew exactly what she was talking about.

"It's sad," Alphonse agreed, "Neither Selim nor his mother know what Fuhrer Bradley really is."

Amelia nodded, unable to help wanting to talk about this to the only two people in the world who would understand how she felt, "And if we told them, it would undoubtedly just make things worse for them. I can't even imagine how Mrs. Bradley would take it. She's head-over-heels for the Fuhrer."

"And poor Selim," Alphonse agreed with her, "He idolizes his father. It would really hurt him to know the truth." Amelia nodded.

Edward had remained quiet this whole time, listening as his brother and apprentice spoke to each other about the Bradleys. He could feel that same weight in his mind that Amelia had, the weight of the truth about that small world they shared together. It was a heavy weight and talking about it only seemed to add on to his sympathies for them and make that weight even heavier. He never liked it, but it was something he was starting to grow used to. The knowledge of the truth always seemed to be heavy, the truth about the Philosopher's Stone, the truth about human transmutation, the truth of how they were only human and couldn't save one little girl. All of it constantly weighed down on him, and though he would never show it to Alphonse or Amelia willingly, there were days where he felt like he would suffocate under that knowledge, where it could pin him to the bed and force him to be constantly reminded of these terrible things that would swirl around forever in his thoughts.

But with that truth, he also knew the truth about Alphonse's body, the truth about his metal limbs, the truth about Amelia's lack of freedom. He couldn't let himself be weighed down by all of that knowledge, he wouldn't let it happen to him. He stood up a little straighter, starting to pick up the pace and moved out in front of Amelia and Alphonse, catching the two of them by surprise.

"Brother?" Alphonse called after him, starting to run to keep up his pace, and Amelia did the same.

"Come on, let's go! We're headed north!" Edward said to him as they ran, "We'll catch that obnoxious little brat and make her tell us everything she knows about alkahestry!"

"Right!" Alphonse ran with him, going to the road and rushing off to their hotel. The distance wasn't far from Central Command and the presidential estate where the Bradley family lived. Amelia was a little surprised when it wasn't a marathon to her, that she could not only keep pace with the boys, but she didn't run out of breath when they finally got to the hotel. She didn't need to take a moment to pause and catch her breath, she hadn't been sprinting, just jogging. She felt fine, her heart was racing, and her body was a little hot, and she wanted a drink of water, but otherwise, she was perfectly fine. She smiled a little as she went back to the hotel room with the boys, starting to really see how much more fit she had gotten since she had arrived here.

"Alright, pack up all your warm clothes, but try to pack light," Edward said to Amelia once they got to their room. "We're heading up in the mountains, and you always hear about how it's almost always winter year-round there. We need to make sure we have all the right things."

"Pack all my heavy clothes but pack them lightly. Got it." Amelia teased him a little bit, and Edward frowned, "Oh, calm down. It's a joke, I know what you meant. You want me to just have one suitcase full, right?"

"Yes, and let's keep it that way if we can. Just one." He said, and Amelia nodded.

"Yeah, I got it." She said, going over to her room to start looking to see if the Armstrongs had lent her any winter clothes she could use. As she started opening dresser drawers, she could hear Edward talking to Alphonse.

"Al, you go to the station and buy the next train tickets up to North City, the soonest one, okay?"

"Okay, got it." Alphonse's armor clanked as he left the room to go and get the tickets that Edward had specified while Amelia went about looking through the dresser drawers. She managed to find a few things, taking out as many pairs of seemingly warm and thick pants she could find, anything with denim or fleece she instantly pulled out since she was certain that would keep her warm. She managed to find a few long-sleeved shirts, and she did manage to find a stylish coat that was trimmed with fur, definitely good for the cold. She laid out a few of them together, making a few outfits that she could wear for whenever they were up there.

After a little time moving things around and figuring out what all she would need, she packed enough outfits to last her a week, as well as a spare coat in case the fur-trimmed trench coat got damaged somehow. She remembered not too long ago that there was a special kind of "roll" one could use when packing up, that it was apparently how people in the army packed for when they were sent out somewhere far. She rolled up each outfit together, making sure to include everything she would need like socks and undergarments in each one before moving them into her suitcase. Once she finished, she had a lot of space, so she started packing things she needed for just day-to-day hygiene and grooming. Once that was put away, she still had room. She doubted she would have time to find anything to add to her bag once they got into the north and found the girl. So she decided to pack a few more extras, one more coat, one more pair of boots, some hats and gloves.

She looked around, wondering if she would need anything else. Cosmetics? Probably not, she didn't wear them now, she doubted she'd have a reason to up north. Dresses? What would she wear a dress for? It would be freezing cold up there. And it wasn't like she had leggings to wear underneath it, either. She looked through the drawers, trying to find whatever she felt was definitely necessary to fill the space in the suitcase before Alphonse came back. Soap would probably be available to them in their hotel up north, so she wouldn't need to pack that… She couldn't exactly pack extra pillows in there, but maybe an extra blanket? Technically that would be stealing, and it would be charged to Edward if she did it… She threw her phone charger in there, going through everything she had from the Armstrongs to try and fill that space.

Before she realized it, enough time had gone by for Alphonse to come back with the train tickets, "I'm back, Brother!" She panicked inwardly. She wasn't ready, what if she forgot something important? "The earliest train they have is tomorrow morning at 9." She let out a groan as she heard the news, knowing that would mean they would have to wake up early to make the train and get out on time.

"Alright, thanks, Al." Edward said, taking the tickets from his younger brother and heading over to Amelia's room to see her suitcase on her bed with her clothes and everything else she would need, "So, how packed are— Oh, looks like you're done."

"I guess?" Amelia looked back at her suitcase, "I still feel like I'm forgetting something important. I don't really like having that empty space in there…"

"Well, it looks like you have more than enough clothes," Edward commented as he came over, "Extra coat, toothbrush, hairbrush, some gloves, some boots… um…" He gave her phone charger a strange look, "This wire… bit thingy. Looks like you're all set." He reached for the other side of her suitcase, bringing it up and shutting it, starting to lock it up.

"Wait, are you sure?" Amelia asked, "Is there anything we're going to need?"

"Nothing that you haven't packed," Edward assured her, putting her suitcase down on the floor, "Seriously, it looks like you packed everything you need. Whatever we don't have now we can get whenever we get up north, I still have grant money to use on our travels, remember?"

"Well, yeah… alright." She conceded, letting out a small sigh, "I guess I'm just a little anxious."

"You don't need to pack your whole wardrobe or anything," Edward chuckled, "It's not like we're not coming back."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She relaxed a little bit more, "I just don't like to see empty space like that before traveling. I always like to be well-prepared."

"If I traveled like that, I'd hardly get anywhere without losing something." Edward shrugged, "Whatever I need I can normally create with alchemy if I really need it. Or buy it. You'll be fine, just make sure you have some warm clothes to wear for when we get there." Amelia nodded.

"Right…" She looked over at Edward, "Is it really always so cold it feels like winter?"

"That's what I heard," Edward shrugged, "Our teacher spent an entire month up there, apparently. Surviving in the wilderness of the frozen mountains."

"Really? How did that go?" She asked.

"She did really well, she said it influenced her entire understanding of alchemy," Edward replied, "Though, apparently she did it to impress a man she thought was a famous alchemist. Turns out she did it to impress his brother, the wrestler who was hard of hearing." Amelia let out a small chuckle.

"I'm sure that must have been an unpleasant surprise." She said.

"Yeah, but she made it out just fine," Edward replied. "Just like how we'll make it out fine and find this girl, learn alkahestry, and save the world."

Amelia laughed a little harder at that, "Wow, you've got this nailed down, huh? Saving the world?"

"Well, what else could they be doing but trying to take it over?" Edward asked in response, grinning as Amelia laughed again.

"Christ, I doubt it's that serious but sure. Let's save the world." Amelia chuckled to herself, sitting down on her bed as she looked up at Edward. "So, what time should we get out of here tomorrow?"

"The train leaves at 9, so we'll leave here about 8." Edward replied, coming over to sit next to her on the bed, "After that, it'll be a couple of days of traveling up to North City, and then we'll head up to the Briggs Fortress and see General Armstrong to get her help." Amelia nodded along with his plan, "By the way, what's she like? She's the Major's sister, right?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't know her." Amelia said, "I know all of his younger sisters, but General Armstrong is probably Olivier, who I haven't met yet." She tried to think, "At most, all I know about her is that she holds the rank of general and that she was going to be the original heir to the Armstrong family alchemy, and fortune, at least until the Major was born. I know nothing about her as a person…" She crossed her arms, trying to remember, "I think she might be kind of a tomboy? Amue mentioned she didn't really pursue the arts like her sisters had, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's not just super into science…"

"Hey, maybe she is and we'll get lucky." Edward said, "We can talk alchemy and alkahestry with her, get her interested in it."

"It'll be as good a start as any, I suppose." She looked over at Edward, "You still have that letter the Major gave you, right?" Edward nodded, reaching to open his coat so she could see that he put the envelope in an inner pocket. He reached inside and took it out.

"I'll put this with my stuff," He said, standing up and walking out of the room, Amelia following him out.

"Oh, Amelia," Alphonse got her attention, holding out a stack of envelopes to her, "The front desk said these were all for you."

"Oh!" Amelia reached for the stack, seeing there were about five letters from Richard. "Thank you, Al. I should really read these." She smiled, surprised that he had been writing to her so faithfully after their first meeting, it was actually kind of sweet that he would. She was eager to open them and read what all had been happening since they last spoke at the reunion. She took the letters from him and started looking through them, trying to find the one that had the oldest date so she could start chronologically.

"You can read them later." Edward said, putting his hand on her shoulder, "I want to run a few more alchemy drills with you before the night's over."

"Seriously?" Amelia whined, "I thought we did a bunch of drills this morning!"

"We did, and now we're going to run some more." He took the letters from her hands and put them on the coffee table, "These will be waiting for you when you come back. Come on." She let out a long, exasperated sigh that was probably a little exaggerated just to show Edward how much she didn't want to do it, but she left outside with him anyway to do as he asked. She could agree with him that she needed all the practice she could get, so it wasn't like she had a good reason to refuse. They would finish that up for the night and head out to their next venture tomorrow morning.