35

Greed didn't really have any desire to stay in Central, especially not after telling them that he had attacked Bradley, and they had decided to move westward on his whim. They had been doing that for a while, managing to find places that were willing to give them space for the night or just straight-up sleeping on the ground. Amelia was miserable the first night seeing as she only had grass and leaves for any kind of comfort. Edward ended up taking the time to teach her how to transmute some softer grass into something akin to an air mattress so that she could sleep a little easier. It was weird, and it was a difficult adjustment, but soon she found it easier to sleep to the sounds of nature, hearing crickets chirping or owls hooting, though it was never as sound a sleep as it was in a bed.

In their most recent venture, they had almost managed to procure an actual bed for the night, until there was an incident between Greed and the Innkeeper that turned into a massive argument that got them all kicked out. They were currently on the outskirts of the village where that inn was, and Amelia was just waking up as the sun started to shine over her. She sat up with a small sigh, rubbing at her face with her hands before looking around at the rest of their group. She had noticed a few things as they had traveled, namely the different ways everyone slept. Darius seemed to prefer sleeping on his stomach, with his cheeks pressed up against the ground in a way that always left him with some kind of cowlick hair in the morning. Heinkel slept stock stiff as a board, hands right at his sides, feet exactly straight across. It looked somewhat painful and stiff, but he always seemed completely fine every morning. Edward would usually try to follow suit to Heinkel on his back when he went to sleep, or on his side with his flesh arm being used as a pillow, but he always ended up on his back, limbs sprawled out, mouth gaping open and drooling, with his shirt a little mussed and exposing some of his stomach (and she couldn't deny the first time she saw it, it was simultaneously hilarious and kind of cute, but she also got a peek at the abs he had underneath).

The only one among their group that she never seemed to see when asleep was the only one that wasn't fully human anymore. Even now, she looked over and saw Greed perched up on a low tree branch, grinning down at her once their eyes met. He started to make his way down as she started to get up, figuring there was no going back to sleep now that she had gotten his attention.

"Well, good morning little princess." Greed greeted her, not bothering to keep his voice too quiet for the rest of their sleeping group.

Amelia didn't respond other than a tired glare and a finger pressed to her lips to show him that he needed to be quiet as she got up from her little mattress and started to make her way over to the side of the clearing where they had camped for the night. He followed her wordlessly as she went over into the trees, following the sounds of running water that she had heard last night that had helped her get to sleep. "So, where are you off to so early in the morning?" Greed asked her as she continued her walk to the water, coming upon a little creek.

"I'm going to wash my face in the freezing cold water of this river since somebody decided that we were better off camping in the woods than having access to a soft bed, with a working bathroom." She said with a pointed glare over her shoulder at him.

"Oh, come on. That was hours ago, you're still mad?" Greed groaned.

"Yes, I'm still mad!" She snapped at him as she knelt down by the river, bringing her hand over to the nearest tree, and clapping her hands together to transmute some of the bark into a little bit of bar soap.

"How was I supposed to know that offering to clean up my mess was going to piss him off?" Greed asked in a defensive voice.

"Because when you break the urn that contains someone's ashes, you don't offer to sweep it up and throw it away!" Amelia snapped back at him.

"I didn't know it was an urn, I thought it was just a decorative vase or something." Greed said, crossing his arms as Amelia just shook her head, "I mean, why didn't they put their grandma in the ground like everyone else? Don't humans normally bury their dead?"

Amelia let out a frustrated groan as she splashed the cold water onto her face before lathering up the soap in her hands, "There's a lot of reasons why someone can choose to cremate someone over burying them." She said as she watched the suds forming on her skin as she continued to lather up the little soap bar. "And now, because you were such an insensitive dick, I have to wash my face in this freezing cold water instead of in a hot shower." She said, rubbing her cheeks with the soap as she started to clean up, "I could have washed my entire body, in nice, hot water, but nooo. You had to go and disrespect the dead grandmother of the guy who owned the inn."

"Hey, I'm not exactly thrilled about it either, you think I don't want to see you washing your body in the shower?" His question instantly earned him the response of Amelia transmuting some of the water in front of her to form icicles that fired directly at Greed that he barely managed to dodge, one of them actually cutting open his cheek. "Whoa! Okay, point taken. Too early for flirting." He said, letting his wound regenerate and heal as she continued to wash her face. He stood off to the side, giving her some space as she cleaned up, "I don't see what the big deal is about 'disrespecting the dead' anyway. They're dead. What are they gonna do, kill me?"

Amelia sighed as she went to rinse off her face in the water, speaking after she had gotten all the suds off, "The family of the dead person usually want to remember them fondly, so disrespecting their dead relative is equivalent to disrespecting their entire family." She said as she reached for her shirt, pulling it up to dab at her face and start to dry it. She looked down at her clothes, letting out a long sigh before she went to transmute them, getting rid of any stains that were on it. She had been wearing the same outfit for a week, and while it was doing its job and she was keeping it clean with alchemy, she really just wanted to run it through a laundry machine and take a hot bath somewhere. She felt filthy. "So, yeah. That's why you don't disrespect the dead."

Greed let out a small hum, "Well why didn't he just bury her, then? I couldn't have knocked over the nice vase he was keeping her in if she was buried."

"Their grandma could have asked to have her body cremated, or it could have just been the cheaper option for their family." She replied, taking a gentler approach as she explained human customs to Greed. Ever since they had joined, it had become a bit of a routine for him to follow her out if she was going to go wash up in the mornings, and they would always talk. Either it would be her deflecting his flirting, or they would have conversations about each other's goals, or even discussing the other homunculi, but sometimes they would also have conversations explaining the differences between humans and homunculi, like today. "Burying people can get expensive because you have to pay for someone to bury the body, pay for the box you bury them in, pay for the land to bury the box in and pay for someone to make your dead relative look nice when they go into the ground." She stood up and looked over at him, "Cremation is just paying someone to put them in an oven for a couple of days until they're nothing but ashes."

"That seems like a lot," Greed commented.

"It is,"

"And very lucrative," He grinned.

"We are not going to start burying people for money." Amelia scowled at him. "I don't care how much it is, I'm not touching a dead body."

"What's the big deal, anyway? It's not like it'll do anything to you."

"It's creepy!"

"How? They're not moving, it's like they're just permanently asleep or something!"

"That's exactly why it's creepy!" Greed just rolled his eyes and Amelia rolled hers.

"Well, if it's so expensive, why didn't they just do it themselves? It's cheaper then, right?"

"No one is going to ask a family in mourning to go through the incredibly difficult process of carrying and taking care of their family member's corpse if they can get someone else to do it." She sighed, bringing her hands up to her head, "Everyone needs different ways to grieve, burying them is one way to honor them, another way is to carry them in an urn so that they can always feel close to them." She brought her hands down and looked up at him, "And yes, I recognize the irony in getting closer to someone after they're dead, but that's just how humans are. We don't like losing the people we care about, so we come up with rituals and different ways to honor them and who they were when they were alive. It makes us feel better and it's easier to come to peace with the fact that they're no longer here with us."

Greed opened his mouth to respond, but stopped, letting out a thoughtful hum as he took a minute to process something she had just said, "So… alright, let me see if I've got this right," Amelia looked up at him curiously, though fully expecting some smartass comment, "Humans do these different rituals because they lost someone, and it makes them feel better?"

"Usually that's how it goes," Amelia replied with a shrug, crossing her arms. She watched as Greed took another moment to think, bringing his hand up to his chin and resting his elbow on his other hand as he started to ponder something. Amelia's head tilted to the side, a little more curious than she had been a moment ago, "What are you thinking about?"

He let out a small hum in thought before he spoke, "So… what if they don't have access to the remains? Like, someone dies, you don't have their body or their ashes, you want to mourn them or whatever to feel better, what do you do?"

Amelia was a little surprised, blinking a few times as she stared at him before she thought about it, "Um… well, there are a few ways to honor someone like that. I mean, you can hold an honorary funeral for them with no casket or anything, memorial services, uh… I guess there's that pouring one out thing, too…?"

"What's that?"

"Oh, it's um, it's where you take one of their favorite drinks, usually something alcoholic, and kind of just pour it out into the ground since you can't give the drink to them in person anymore."

"And you can just do that anywhere?"

"Um… technically yes? But more often it's done in a place where it matters, like at the gravesite, or at their favorite place to hang out, or-"

"Alright!" She jumped as he interrupted her, "We're going to do that."

"...Huh?"

"I've made up my mind, we're going to go to The Devil's Nest, and I'm gonna pour one out for my old crew."

"Wait, what?"

"This works out great! And I was just looking for something new to do, thanks, Princess." He gave her a playful wink before starting to make his way back to camp.

"What? Hey, wait a second!" She quickly started to follow after him, hurriedly gathering up her things before she stood up, "What do you mean? Who's your old crew?" She had no idea what brought this on so suddenly with him.

"My old crew, from back when I was the other Greed," He answered as he continued to walk, his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants with his coat flowing out behind him, proudly walking with his head held high, "I had a whole crew of human chimeras working with me, and they died, so I'm gonna do a little human mourning ritual."

"Wait a minute, you've never talked about them before?" Amelia was having a little trouble keeping up with him as she tried to get to his side, but the foliage was a little too thick for her to do that without bumping into something.

As they made it back to the clearing, they came back to see Edward standing up while Darius and Heinkel were just waking up. He looked back as he heard Greed responding to her, "Well, yeah, because I haven't really thought about it much, but-"

"There you are!" Edward's voice cut through their conversation before he came marching over to Amelia, getting in her face with an angry glare, "Where were you?"

She leaned back slightly, "Okay, first of all, personal space," She said, giving his shoulder a small push to encourage him to step back so she could stand up straight again, "Second of all, I was just over by the river."

"With him?" Edward pointed at Greed, who was grinning widely seeing Edward getting worked up. This had, unfortunately, also become part of their morning routine whenever Amelia would wake up first. Greed would follow her, and they would have talks about different things and come back to a furious Edward who would demand to know exactly what had happened.

Amelia just rolled her eyes, "Jesus, Ed. Yes, with Greed because he doesn't know how to handle mornings by himself."

Greed shrugged, "What can I say? You know how to start my day, Princess."

"Stop calling me that." Amelia snapped at him before walking around Edward, who glared fiercely at Greed, making the homunculus smile.

"Aw, you jealous? Don't worry, I'll spend tomorrow morning with you," Greed mockingly replied to his glowering scowl with a wink that made Edward's face scrunch up in disgust, making the homunculus laugh as he walked back to the camp. "Alright, team! New plan, huddle up," He said, and just had the two chimera men turn to him while Amelia went to undo the transmutation for her bed while Edward went to stand by her side, still glaring at Greed with crossed arms as he listened, "So, after some thinking, I've made a decision about our next destination: we'll be hitting up a town called Dublith." Edward's glare immediately dissolved into an expression of pale-faced horror, "We'll be there for a couple of days to take care of some personal business, and then we'll scope around, see what's interesting nearby, and move on."

"H-Hold on a second!" Edward piped up, "We're supposed to be avoiding the military right now, and Dublith is really close to Southern Headquarters!"

"It is?" Amelia asked as her transmutation came undone, turning into small leaves that fluttered down on top of the grass where she had slept the night before. She looked over at Darius and Heinkel, the two men sharing a silent conversation with their eyes as they both tried to remember just how close Dublith was to Southern HQ.

Heinkel looked back over at her, "It's three towns away from South City, it's a short ride from there to Dublith, but I don't think the military make regular patrols there unless they have a reason."

"There, see? We're fine." Greed said confidently, "Far enough away for us not to get in trouble and relax a little. That's why I picked that place the first time around when I wanted to head south."

Ed wasn't satisfied with that, "But how do we know that they don't have a regular reason to make patrols there? It's too close to South HQ, I think we should completely avoid it."

"Now hold on," Greed looked over at him, crossing his arms, "I think you're forgetting who the leader is here, Blondie." Edward instantly scowled at his nickname, "I'm saying we're going to Dublith, we're going to visit my old hangout there, and we're gonna pour one out for my old crew. And if things get kind of dicey, we'll get out of there."

Ed still looked hesitant, "Look, we can't predict that they won't show up there, I think it's best if we avoid the place entirely." He insisted.

Greed frowned, "Look, kid: I'm the leader, and I say we're going to Dublith. If you're that worried about it, we'll be there for a day and then get out, alright? But we're going."

"Why are you so worried about it, anyway?" Amelia asked, "Is there something in Dublith we should know about?"

Edward's expression became pale as he remembered what had happened the last time he had made a trip to Dublith. It wasn't like it was a small town… sure, his teacher was well-known among the locals, but it wasn't like they knew who he would be right off the bat. There was a good chance that maybe he could hideout, if the military was looking for a kid in a red coat and a braid, maybe he could do the same thing in Dublith and not have anyone recognize him…? That's not a guarantee that they wouldn't run into Mason, or Sig, who would just tell his teacher where he was. While he wasn't worried about her finding him and beating him up like he had been a few months ago, that wasn't a guarantee that she wouldn't notice him getting flabby, much less the fact that he was traveling with a pair of chimeras, a wanted criminal, and a known homunculus. But still… it had been a long time since he'd heard from her or even spoken to her. They hadn't really seen each other since his last visit, and the last contact he had with her was the phone call about her human transmutation. She wouldn't be expecting him… maybe if he kept his jacket hood up and kept a low profile with a few shady people, things could work out?

"Uh… no, there's nothing." Edward replied, "We uh, just need to be careful is all." Amelia gave him a skeptical look, not buying that for a second and Edward frowned, "Really! That's all! I just don't want us getting caught by the military because the last time I was there, they made their way over to Dublith to get rid of him and his goons." He pointed his thumb at Greed, who still stood with crossed arms. Amelia's eyes narrowed and he grew a little more worried as she didn't seem to buy it, "All I'm saying is if the military catches wind that the homunculus they took out months ago came back to the same place, it puts a big target on our backs!"

"All I'm hearing," Greed interrupted, "Is that there's no problem outside of you being paranoid." He grinned, his arms going to his hips, "We're going to Dublith." He turned to Darius and Heinkel, "Guys, round up whatever stuff you got, and let's get moving! We're heading out." The two chimeras shrugged and got up, getting what few belongings they all had and started to follow behind Greed, with Ed and Amelia doing the same.

She still had her eyes narrowed, "Edward, what's going on? You've never challenged Greed's choice on a location like that before."

"Nothing!" Edward insisted, flustered, "Look, just drop it, alright? It's not important and we should be fine."

Amelia still wasn't buying it, but she shrugged and decided to let it go since badgering him about it wasn't going to provide any results. So, for the time being, she just walked with the others and continued on their way to find the quickest trip to get to Dublith. Since they still had the car, they still made use of it where they could, though admittedly traveling was a bit more cramped.

No matter how long the trip was, or how long it took them, Edward made sure to sit firmly in the middle between Amelia and Greed, which amused the homunculus to no end and slightly annoyed Amelia. Heinkel and Darius sat up front, with no intentions to turn around and mess with the three teenagers in the back, mainly because they were too old to deal with that kind of garbage.

"Edward, scoot over, your leg is touching mine," Amelia said.

"I can't scoot over, there's no room."

"Well close your legs then."

"I'm comfortable like this. Not like I get much comfort sitting in the middle seat."

"Hey, I said I would take the middle spot when we got in," Greed said with a grin, egging on his favorite form of entertainment.

"No," Edward said firmly, crossing his arms and glaring at the homunculus, "I'm fine right here."

"Ed, just switch seats with Greed," Amelia sighed, "It's not like it's a big deal anyway."

"Yes, it is." Edward stubbornly argued, "I'm not moving."

"But the window seats are more comfortable, just switch with him."

"No!"

"Close your legs, then!"

"I'm comfy like this!"

"Well, I'm not!"

"I don't care!"

"Just switch seats with him!"

"No!"

Greed chuckled throughout their bickering while Heinkel had to reach up and rub at his temples to stop the oncoming migraine, though it didn't work very well as their voices only got louder.

"What's your problem? Just switch seats with him and be done with it!"

"I will not! I'm not letting him sit next to you!"

"It's not a big deal Ed, just move!"

"No!"

"Hey, it's not like I'm gonna do anything to the little princess," Greed added in.

"I don't trust you!" Edward snapped at him, pointing decisively at his face.

"I don't either, but I can handle him, Ed!" Amelia snapped back at the blonde.

"You stay out of this, I'm staying right here!"

"No, you're not! Just move over!" She pushed his shoulder over to Greed, which just made the homunculus laugh and made Edward more furious.

"Don't push me!"

"Then move and I won't have to push you!"

"I'm not moving!"

"Then I'm gonna keep pushing you!"

"Knock it off, Amelia!"

"You knock it off! And fucking move!"

"No!"

"How about you all knock it off and shut the hell up?!" Darius finally cracked, nearly yelling at them as he drove, an angry vein popping out of his neck as he shouted at them, "If you keep shouting at each other, I swear I'm gonna pull over and you kids can walk!"

Greed burst out laughing while Edward just crossed his arms and Amelia did the same, the two not speaking to each other. She didn't really understand why, but Edward had been rather stifling in the last two weeks, especially when it came to her spending any time by herself for too long, even more so when it came to Greed and her. Arguments like this between them had become more common with Edward insisting that she never be left alone for too long, despite the fact that she was confident in her skills. She was starting to think that his compliments of her alchemical skills when they had left Briggs together was just talk from him to make her feel better, which only made her feel worse in the moment. However, no matter how bad she felt, Greed was living for every argument they had. He had made no secret that it was his favorite form of entertainment since they had teamed up, and the chimeras had made no secret of the fact that they felt like the only sensible pair of their quintet.

Heinkel reached over and pat Darius on the shoulder as he drove, a silent way to reassure and encourage him, and Amelia could see him visibly relaxing as he gave his shoulder a squeeze. The gorilla chimera let out a long sigh and continued to drive, "Look, can't you guys just be quiet like normal people? I swear you've done nothing but fight since we've started traveling together."

"It's not like I started it," Amelia muttered.

"Yes, you did!" Edward snapped.

"Hey!" Darius turned around, "I don't care who started it, I'll finish it! Now can both of you just be quiet?"

"Whatever," Amelia sighed, and Edward didn't say anything. He glanced over at Greed, who was still grinning at the free entertainment the kids had provided, and glared at him before sitting back in his seat.

There was some quiet for a few moments before Heinkel went to check their map to make sure they were heading down the right road, and Greed turned to the two kids with him in the backseat. "So, little princess," Edward and Amelia both glared at Greed as he started to speak to her, "I have a couple of questions for you regarding that stuff we talked about earlier." Edward's eyes narrowed at Greed.

"Okay, what kind of questions?" Amelia asked, figuring it couldn't hurt to answer them.

"When I pour one out, does it just have to be one bottle, or is it a drink for every person who died?"

"How many people were in your old crew?" Amelia asked.

He took a moment to count them out on his hands, muttering the names to himself, "Roa, Dorochet, Martel, Ulchi, Bido…" he held up his hand, "Five people."

"Well, then we can do one big bottle for all of them, that should be fine." Amelia shrugged, "But if you want to do each individual drink, like if they all had different tastes, that would be okay, too."

"Which one is better, do you think?" He asked her. She only shrugged in response.

"Considering our lack of funds, I'd just get the one bottle of whatever, preferably something cheap."

"What are you talking about?" Edward asked, looking over at Amelia.

"Greed had some questions about ways people honor their dead," Amelia explained, "We were talking about it this morning, and I guess it's what prompted this sudden trip."

"Yeah, I got some unfinished business in Dublith anyway, so I can take care of that after I honor my old crew." Greed added on.

"What business?" Edward asked, "Last I remember, you were just bumming and thieving in Dublith."

"Yeah, and I've got some unfinished bumming and thieving business." Greed replied in a sassy tone, reaching to condescendingly poke at Edward's temple as if he was pushing those words into his head, cackling as Edward reached up to swipe his hand away with an angry scowl.

"We better not be stealing anything in Dublith," Amelia narrowed her eyes at Greed, "We don't need to draw any more attention to ourselves if this place is as close to the military as Ed says it is."

"We're not. I just have an old contact there that I think we should hit up." Greed replied, "It'll help us more than hurt us."

"What contact?" Edward asked.

"One of the guys who gave us the space under the Devil's Nest," Greed said, "I gave him a few things to hold onto, and I didn't come back to get them until now, for obvious reasons." He gestured to his body, leaning back in his seat with one hand on the car windowsill.

"As long as we're not turning into thieves, that should be fine…" Amelia muttered as she sat back, going back to looking out the window, "And hopefully we can find an inn where someone doesn't screw up our chances to stay the night."

Greed sighed loudly at her not-so-subtle jab at him, "I already said I screwed up, alright?"

"No, you didn't."

"I said it this morning."

"You did not apologize this morning, I would have remembered."

"Who said anything about an apology?" Amelia glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest, and he rolled his eyes, "Oh, come on. Trust me, I just need to get this stuff and you won't even care about last night, I swear."

"You swear?" Edward repeated doubtfully, "On what?"

"My mother's grave." Greed sassily replied.

"You don't have a mother. Homunculi don't have parents."

"I have a father, I could swear on his grave?"

"He's not dead."

"Yet."

"What even is this stuff we're getting from your guy?" Amelia asked, breaking up their would-be build-up to another fight.

"Some valuables, things I collected over the years that can probably help us out later." Greed replied, "You know, money, jewelry, little statues of naked babies to go on fountains."

"You had all of that stashed away in Dublith and didn't think to mention it until now? We've been traveling penniless for two weeks!"

"Yeah, but I had to make sure I was gone long enough for the heat to die down first."

"You stole it?!"

"I told you it was unfinished bumming and thieving business." Amelia groaned and slid down in her seat, her hands going up to her forehead and dragging down her face, "What? It's been long enough now that no one will care if we sell them at a pawn shop in the next town over. We'll be fine."

"We better be, or so help me I'm going to start finding a way to take off one of your limbs." Amelia looked over at him with a glare, crossing her arms once more.

Greed barked out a laugh at her threat, "Good luck with that, little princess!"

Meanwhile, in the front seat, Heinkel and Darius shared a silent glance, knowing the two of them had to be the most sensible people in this car compared to the two riled up teenage alchemists and the homunculus in the backseat, and let out simultaneous, tired parent sighs before continuing down the road to Dublith.

Edward couldn't help looking over his shoulder as their group continued down the road. He had his hood pulled up to cover his face a little more, and Amelia had done the same to avoid being recognized on the off chance there were wanted posters put up of her. She glanced over at Edward as Greed led the way down the sidewalk from where they had parked the car. They made sure to pick a location just outside of town where, hopefully, no one would notice an abandoned, stolen car.

As they walked, Edward would routinely look around them, sometimes going ahead of Greed to glance around the corners of the buildings they were passing, or looking back behind them whenever someone else happened to be walking in another direction that didn't even notice their group. He would constantly move from in-between Heinkel and Darius to hide behind the two largest men from anyone that could potentially spot them. All the while, it made Amelia incredibly jumpy to the point where Edward's paranoia made her afraid of a wandering alley cat that hissed at the strangers that walked by their territory in a dumpster.

As Edward glanced over his shoulder behind them once more for the 17th time in 7 minutes, Amelia snapped, "Stop skulking around like that! It's making me paranoid!" She muttered through clenched teeth.

"I'm just making sure we're not being followed!" Edward defended himself.

"We drove through the town before we stopped the car, there was not a single soldier in sight, and there still isn't!" Amelia hissed, "Just knock it off, or I swear I will give you something to be paranoid about."

"You don't know this town that well, someone could see us and recognize you!"

"I'm taking precautions here, you don't need to tell me the risks!"

"Guys," Greed's voice carried over their angered whispers, "You can both calm down, we'll be fine. There's no soldiers in town, and we won't even be here for a day, so you can both cool it."

"I didn't start this," Amelia said defensively.

"No one cares who started it but whispering and running around like you are is going to draw more attention to us instead of you two just walking casually. And take your damn hoods off, that's more suspicious than anything." Greed commanded. The two teenagers reluctantly removed the hoods off of their heads as they headed down the street, "We're almost there, anyway."

"If we're only staying for less than a day, does that mean we're not spending the night at an inn?" Amelia asked in her normal speaking voice.

"Just to satisfy the blonde kid, yes."

"Damn," Amelia sighed in resignation, but she knew that was a battle she didn't need to have with Edward. She glanced over at him, "Why are you acting so weird anyway? It's just Dublith, you've only been here like once in the last year."

"Yeah, well some people know me in Dublith, so I just want to be careful," Edward muttered, crossing his arms as they walked.

"Well, are those people likely to be anywhere near some basement dive bar?" Amelia asked. When Edward didn't respond, she shrugged, "Then we'll be fine, stop freaking out."

As they turned a corner, they arrived at The Devil's Nest. It looked exactly like Amelia remembered it, with a singular entrance in a brick wall with a set of stairs leading down into the dark tunnel that led to the building underground. Greed led the way, opening the door and seeing that the bar hadn't changed all that much either. Dimly lit for the sake of ambiance, the entire bar reeking of cigarettes and tobacco with women scattered about in various booths corralling whatever male customers they could get. As soon as their group walked in, a pair immediately went to approach Heinkel and Darius, one of the girls having a bottle of wine in her hands.

"Hey there, handsome~" She flirtatiously greeted Heinkel, who stood stone-faced, "Why don't you come and sit with us for a bit? Have a drink, hm?"

"Yeah, come and have a drink with us!" The other girl said, tugging on Darius's hand that he quickly pulled away.

"No thanks, we're not interested," Darius replied firmly.

"And we don't have any money to spend on girls," Heinkel added.

That immediately sent them away, and Amelia watched them go with wide eyes. "Uh… were those prostitutes?"

"Do you really want the answer to that question, or do you want to do this thing and get out of here?" Greed asked, and before she could respond, "That was rhetorical, let's do this." She sighed as her words died on the tip of her tongue as they went up to the bar. The bartender gave their group a suspicious look as they approached him, "Hey, I'm looking for a good bottle of uh… oh, let's say wine, how much would it cost me?" Greed, ever the one for charisma, took the lead in approaching him and grinned at the man.

"Depends what kind ya want." The bartender replied, looking past Greed's shoulders at Darius and Heinkel before his gaze moved to Edward and Amelia, his eyes narrowing a bit as he looked at the teenagers, and Amelia turned her head away casually, trying to make it look like she wasn't concerned as she looked around the seedy bar, though she was mainly hoping he didn't recognize her.

"I'm a big fan of red wine, there's this one blend I'm particularly fond of, maybe you've heard of it: Moseley, this blend of red grapes and cherries. Bit of sour to join the sweet."

The bartender nodded, going over under the bar to find the wine he wanted, "Haven't had anyone ask for this in a good while." He put it down on the bar and looked up at greed, "That'll be 5,600 cenz." Greed frowned at the price.

"Little steep isn't it?"

"For this stuff, nah. I have to import it from Creta. There's cheaper blends if you want it, but Moseley's a little pricey."

"Nah, we need Moseley for what I've got in mind." Greed said, turning around to face Heinkel for the wallet.

"We barely have 6,000 cenz left, I don't think so," Heinkel said, crossing his arms.

"Hey, we'll be fine, I've still got my guy, remember?" Greed said, holding out his hand, making a somewhat insistent grabbing gesture to encourage him to get their shared wallet. Heinkel sighed and reached for it, handing it to him, watching as Greed pulled out nearly all of their money to hand to the bartender, watching him take it and give him his 400 cenz back.

"Enjoy, if you want, I can give you some glasses for the change?" The bartender offered.

"Thanks, but we won't need 'em. Have a good night Gerald." Greed said as he took the bottle and started to make his way out of the bar, his little crew following him up the stairs as the bartender looked a little befuddled. When had he told that man his name?

Once they were back into the sunlight, Greed started trying to get the cork out of the top of the bottle, "Alright, so how do I do this?" Greed asked, and when his question was met with silence, he turned to Amelia, who looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Oh, uh…" She looked at the bottle, "Well, first I guess we could… say a few words about your old crew?"

"What words?" Greed asked as he went back to the cork, trying to yank it out with his hand, bringing his shield out so he could have nails strong enough to pierce the cork to try and wiggle it out.

"I don't know, what would you want to say about them?"

"How the hell should I know? I've never done a damn memorial before." Greed watched in satisfaction as the cork slowly started to wriggle out with his fingers, making sure to keep a good grip on it as he kept pulling, "What do you people normally say when someone dies?" He grunted as he finally yanked it out with a pop, sniffing at the underside of it and letting out a sigh, "Damn, that's good. Almost seems a waste." He tossed the cork away into a sewer drain.

"Well… I guess you would start by saying what kind of people your old crew was, how you want to remember them, stuff like that." Amelia answered.

"Alright, alright, let me think…" Greed took in a slow breath, "So… I guess my crew started with Martel. I found her in a bar somewhere kicking some major ass, and the first thing I thought was 'damn I want to take her home and-'"

"Respectfully!" Amelia interrupted, "Respectfully talk about them! Jesus Christ, you said they were dead."

"This is respectful." Greed defended himself.

"Yeah, keep in mind we don't want to know your inner thoughts about every woman you meet." Edward scowled up at him as he said it.

"You sure? I bet the princess wants to know." Greed couldn't help teasing Edward and Amelia a little bit, watching Amelia's nose scrunch up in disgust while Edward immediately moved in between the two of them with that scowl still firmly set in place.

"Can we please not start another fight in the middle of the street?" Darius asked in the tone of voice that one could only describe as an exhausted and tired parent.

"Alright, fine, fine. I'll be respectful or whatever," Greed sighed, "But we started with Martel, and she rejected me pretty harshly. Still, she had a good right hook, so I told her what I was looking for. She said she could hook me up with her friends if I beat her in a fight, so I did. When she found out I was about as 'human' as she was, she said we were cool, and I got to meet the other guys. And... it was good." He looked down at the wine, reminiscing on his former comrades, "Dorochet was fun, he was up for anything we did, always listened to my orders, always followed through. That was the dog in him, I guess. Bido was just a weird little guy, kinda lonely, but he was good for company. Ulchi was the quiet sort, never really knew him too well, but Martel told me he liked to swim in the sewers sometimes, transformed into his alligator form of course since his family lived around here. None of the others really had family, but he had a nephew or something around here with some rug rats. Liked to check in on them every once in a while. Good guy. Roa was pretty quiet too, but that was more because he just didn't want to say anything, bit stoic type, but incredibly strong. Hardworking, kept everyone else in check when we needed it. And Martel…" He paused, glancing down at the wine bottle again, "Well, Martel was too good for her own good sometimes. Sweeter than she let on. She'd never tell you upfront about it, she tried to hide it, but she was never all that comfortable taking lives, hurting people. She convinced me to do things more stealth and shadows rather than guns blazing on a lot of jobs, for the better. I don't think we would have gotten as far as we did without her guidance sometimes."

Everyone else was quiet as he let out his thoughts on his former crew, none of them really knowing who they were except Edward, though that was only because of what Alphonse had told him. None of them ever really knew who Greed had worked with before, but they were all quiet as he solemnly told them what he remembered about them, the qualities that shone through the most in his memories. It was a surprisingly human moment from him, one that Amelia had never really seen, or expected. Still, it was clear that he was serious about it as he stared into the red liquid of the wine bottle. "So, for everything we did, and everything that happened, I'll pour one out for you guys… Still, it almost seems a waste to use my favorite wine."

"I'm afraid it's a little too late to return it now." Amelia said, "But there's no reason you can't have a sip before you pour one out. The 'one' really only refers to one drink."

"Yeah?" Greed smiled at that, tipping the bottle up to his lips and taking a gulp or two before letting out a sigh, "Oh yeah, that's nice." He offered the bottle to Amelia, who shook her head, "Guys? Want one?"

"I never liked wine," Darius declined.

"I'll pass," said Heinkel.

"No thanks," Edward declined, looking around the alley a little bit to make sure there wasn't anyone around that could recognize him. As far as he could tell, there thankfully wasn't.

"Suit yourselves, it's good stuff." Greed shrugged before looking to Amelia, "So… I just pour out the rest, right?"

"Yeah, if you want." She said.

Greed nodded, starting to empty the contents of the bottle, watching the red wine spill down onto the cobbled road below them, the wine leaking through the cracks and encircling the stones as it went down towards the storm drain where the cork had been thrown. Greed emptied the bottle, shaking out the last droplets before looking at the bottle itself, "Alright, so now what do we do?" He asked.

"Nothing, we're done," Amelia replied, reaching to take the bottle from him to throw away.

"What?" Greed frowned, pulling the empty bottle out of her reach, "I thought you said this would make me feel better."

"It's supposed to?" She looked up at him in confusion.

"Well, I don't feel any better, I just feel the same. We must have missed a step."

"We didn't, maybe you're just grieving in a different way."

"Grieving? The fuck do you mean?"

"That's what happens when people you care about die, you grieve them."

"So how does this make me feel better? I still feel exactly the same except now I taste my favorite wine."

As Greed bickered with Amelia, Edward noticed a figure down the way, turning his head to get a better look and froze as he instantly recognized a pair of dark eyes looking back at him, looking just as surprised to see him there as he was to see her.

"It's supposed to give you closure, so you can move on?"

"Move on? I've been moving on, they're dead and gone already!"

"It's an opportunity to mourn them!"

"Mourn shmourn! I wanted to feel better about my lost possessions that I can't get back!"

"Your lost what?!"

"Hey, we have to go," Edward said, tapping Amelia's shoulder as he still stared at his teacher, who was noticing the crowd he had surrounded himself with.

"What? Why?" She followed his gaze to see Izumi down the street, seemingly talking to someone out of sight before walking towards them, "Who's that?"

"We have to go." Edward said more insistently, pulling on Amelia's arm and starting to run, "Now! Now!" Darius, Heinkel, and Greed didn't need any other convincing once they saw Edward starting to run.

"Is it the military?" Amelia asked, looking back to see the woman that Edward had been looking at before was also starting to run after them.

"No, it's worse!"

"What's worse than the military?" Darius couldn't help asking.

"Is it the homunculi?" Amelia asked.

"No, but that woman can kick major ass!" Greed declared.

A large man came up in front of them, Edward yelping and quickly yanking Amelia around a corner, leaving Darius and Heinkel to nearly crash into him with Greed just barely managing to follow behind Edward. None of them had ever seen him run this fast.

"What is going on?!" Amelia asked in a panic, growing more scared as they all kept running.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to come to Dublith!" was the only answer Edward really gave before he turned a corner, and was suddenly knocked back, losing his grip on Amelia, though she fell onto her side on the sidewalk and saw Edward had been knocked onto his back a few feet away.

"Ed!" She looked up to see the woman from before looming over her. Her heart was pounding from running, and adrenaline was rushing through her veins as her fight-or-flight instincts kicked in. She quickly scrambled to her feet, not wanting to give this woman a chance to hit her next so she went to punch her in the face. The woman expertly dodged it, and she went in with her other hand, which the woman grabbed, yanked and Amelia was flipped over with a loud cry before landing on her back with a painful, "Ugh!"

Greed had stopped behind the kids, looking at the woman with wide eyes, and she just glared at him, "Are you planning on trying to hit me, too?"

"No ma'am, I know better." Greed said, putting his hands up in a preemptive surrender as he took a step back, and the woman turned to Edward.

"And just where have you been?" She demanded of Edward, who was pushing himself to his feet, "I just got a call from Alphonse saying you were missing!"

"I'm sorry, Teacher," Edward apologized sheepishly as he stood up, rubbing at his now-swollen cheek from where his teacher had kicked him down, "Things got kind of complicated…"

"Wait…" Amelia had the wind knocked out of her, but she was still able to push herself up onto her knees, "Is this your teacher?"

"Uh, yeah…" Edward came over to help her stand up, and she brushed some of the dirt and dust off of her since it now seemed Izumi had only flipped her over out of self-defense, "Amelia, this is Izumi Curtis, my alchemy teacher." Izumi looked down at her, and Amelia was about to somewhat-awkwardly greet her before they heard some groaning and saw the large, bearded man from before with Darius and Heinkel just behind him, all of them rubbing different spots on their heads from where they had all knocked together, "And this is her husband, Sig Curtis."

"Oh…" Amelia looked up at the woman, who looked back down at her sternly, "Um… It's a pleasure to meet my teacher's teacher." She said with a polite smile, "Sorry about trying to hit you before… we've kind of been in a weird spot the last couple of weeks."

"Your teacher's teacher?" Izumi looked over at Edward, who immediately shrunk under her gaze, "Since when did you take on students?"

"Um… that's kind of a long story… Al didn't mention it?"

"Wait, you spoke with Alphonse?" Amelia instantly caught onto that fact, remembering that she had mentioned him earlier, "We've been trying to get in contact with him!"

"Oh, yeah!" Edward, forgetting his guilt from his teacher's laser gaze turned back to her, "When did he talk to you? Is he here?"

Izumi let out a small sigh, "Clearly, we have a lot to talk about." She turned back to her husband, "Honey, it looks like I'll need you to get some of the extra chairs for the dining room." Sig only nodded and began to walk down the street, with Izumi wordlessly commanding Edward to follow them, Amelia trailing behind him, Darius and Heinkel trailing behind her, and Greed moving up the line since he refused to be standing at the back of it when he was supposed to be the leader.

The Curtis home, while small and cozy, felt surprisingly roomy when the five of them sat at the round dining table while Izumi and Sig were in the other room. An incredibly tempting smell was wafting in from the kitchen as whatever they were cooking was starting to reach its final stages. For the last two weeks, they had mostly been eating jerky and dried out fruits for rations, along with whatever bread and things Amelia and Edward could transmute, so the smell of something being grilled was incredibly tantalizing to the point their stomachs were gurgling in eager anticipation.

"So… you didn't want us to come to Dublith because of your teacher?" Amelia asked Edward in the quiet of Izumi's home, "I don't get it. I mean… she's an ally, right?"

"Yeah… but I thought it might be better for us to stay out of sight. We don't know who could be watching her house." Edward said, "And… she's kind of merciless."

"Kind of reminds me of the General," Amelia commented idly.

"Oh, trust me, she's just as bad as the General." Edward grimaced.

"Well… at least we'll know what's going on with Alphonse," Amelia said, hearing footsteps and lifting her head in time to see Izumi opening the door and closing it behind her. She came around to one of the two empty seats left, which happened to be between Heinkel and Darius, sitting down and looking straight at Edward.

Again, Edward felt like shrinking under her gaze, but he sat up straight, "So, where's Alphonse?"

"I honestly don't know. He wouldn't tell me that." Izumi answered, "He said it was better if I only knew the most necessary pieces of information. We're actually supposed to pass it along to someone else."

"What information?" Edward asked.

"The date of 'The Promised Day' that's coming up. We're supposed to pass along the information to Captain Buccaneer and Major Miles at Fort Briggs."

"You found out when it was?" Amelia asked, knowing they had been badgering Greed about it for days before they finally gave up when he refused to tell them.

"Yes, it's in the coming spring, March 17th." Izumi said, "He said it was important that I get it to them so they could create some kind of plan."

"That's only a few weeks away!" Edward exclaimed.

"Oh, thank God, there's a plan." Amelia sighed in relief, "Did he tell you what it was?"

"No, all he could tell me was that he was going to be doing a lot of traveling over the next few weeks to help make sure it came to fruition. We didn't talk long." Izumi said, "But we were actually planning to leave to head North this afternoon before we ran into you. What are you doing here, Edward?"

"Ah, that would be my fault," Greed spoke up, lifting his hand to get her attention, "I got everyone to come with me to pour one out for my old friends whose asses you kicked before the military killed them." Izumi's eyes were drawn to the ouroboros tattoo on his hand, still staring at it as he put it down to rest on the table.

"I seem to recall someone else bearing that same tattoo in that same spot," Izumi said, turning to Edward, silently demanding an explanation that he instantly gave.

"Uh, this is… well, this is Greed, the homunculus, but he's in the body of our friend Ling from Xing." Edward sighed, "Like I said, things have gotten really complicated since we last spoke."

"Apparently, especially now that you and Alphonse are separated." Izumi leaned forward on the table, "Tell me everything."

Edward didn't hesitate to fill her in on all that they knew, the identity of the homunculi, their leader, Amelia becoming his apprentice, the nationwide transmutation circle, how he and Amelia were targeted for being sacrifices, everything that had happened in Briggs, how he and Alphonse became separated, and how he came to join up with Greed and the two chimeras on either side of her at the table. All the while, Izumi nodded with a solemn expression as she took in everything Edward was saying. When he was finished, she only had one question, "What happened to get you labeled as a 'sacrifice' to these homunculi?"

"Um… well, that's actually something that affects you too, teacher." Edward said, "Apparently, a sacrifice is someone who's opened the portal through human transmutation." Izumi only frowned more, letting out a sigh, "I think it's best you get out of the country as soon as you can after you pass along your message. We should be able to stop their plans a little with that."

"And both of you have opened the portal?" She turned to Amelia, "What was your toll?"

"Oh… um… I didn't actually… It's kind of complicated, but I didn't perform the transmutation, my friend did." Amelia said, "She lost her body and her soul as the toll… and I was shown everything that earned me in the portal."

"That seems unusual," Izumi replied, and Amelia nodded.

"Believe me, I know. Things were already weird when she did a transmutation, let alone one for human transmutation." She said, and Izumi let out a small hum.

"Well… if nothing else, it's good to see that you're safe." Izumi said, smiling gently at Edward, "Alphonse is worried about you. I'll be sure to let him know you're okay if he calls again. Though, I imagine by that time you might be reunited."

"Maybe," Edward replied hopefully, "But first we'd need to know where he is. You're sure he didn't mention anything?"

"No, all he told me was the information that he needed to pass along, and that they were working on gathering forces to help in their venture. He didn't want to risk saying too much in case my phone was tapped."

"Why would your phone be tapped?" Amelia asked.

"I'm sure these homunculi would want to keep tabs on another sacrifice. It explains why I've had to send away the military so many times in the last few months. They keep coming to my door and trying to recruit me for their alchemist program. It doesn't matter how many times I tell them no." Izumi answered, "I imagine it's only going to get worse now as we get closer to The Promised Day."

"Probably," Edward agreed, "But are you sure he said he was gathering forces? That's it?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Izumi said, "That's all he would tell me."

"Where could he be gathering forces from?" Amelia asked, "Not everyone knows about the circle or the homunculi… Who would he ask?"

"We have our allies in the military, like the Major and the General," Edward put a hand to his chin as he started to think, "And… well, who else is there…? Colonel Mustang, his team…"

"And Scar," Darius added in, "He was with your brother when he left, right? Maybe they're getting some Ishvalans together."

"Is that possible?" Amelia asked.

"There are plenty of Ishvalan slums all around the country, lots of them fled during the civil war." Heinkel said, "If they're going to find Ishvalans to help, they'd be there."

"I'm sure there would be plenty who'd want to help in the downfall of Amestris where they could. Technically, this counts." Darius added.

"Huh… I guess that's something then." Amelia smiled at Edward, "Our first lead. We can try going to a slum and ask around about Scar or Al. It's not like they're too hard to miss."

Edward smiled hopefully at her, "Yeah, that's something, at least."

"Uh, excuse me?" Greed got their attention, "As I recall, I'm in charge here, and I say where we're going."

"Are you really going to tell us we can't go meet up with the people who are going to give your father exactly what he deserves for being such a dick?" Amelia asked, watching the instant conflict on his face at this question. He didn't want to give up the mantle of leadership by going with someone else's suggestion unless it was his own, but at the same time, it was hard for him to deny that desire for revenge where he could get it. "Plus, Scar is a well-known fighter, and pretty good too. He'd be on our side, so maybe we could convince him to join us?"

Greed grinned, "You'd be an excellent salesgirl, you know that?" He laughed, "Alright, next stop, whatever Ishvalan slum we can find."

The doors to the kitchen opened up at that moment, with Sig coming out bearing a plate of steaming meat that he put on the center of the table, and more than a few side dishes to join with the scrumptious looking roast in the center. "Oh man…!" Amelia gasped at the sight of it.

"Everyone, feel free to dig in. It'll be our last lunch at this house for a while, so we wanted to make sure it was a delicious one." Izumi said, and everyone was more than happy to reach for something to put on their plate, Amelia getting a slice of the incredibly delicious-smelling roast first, and Edward following right after her. Plates were gladly passed around the group, who had seen nothing but freeze-dried and salt-cured food for the last month or so as if they hadn't eaten at all. Greed happily chowed down on his food, piling on a scoop of what looked like potatoes that looked impossibly fluffy to Amelia.

"Hey Greed, pass me that bowl so I can have some," Amelia asked, and the homunculus did so without even thinking, only it never made it to her. Edward reached out and took the bowl from Greed before he had the chance to pass it to Amelia, having made sure he was in the seat in between the two at the table before they ever sat down. He took the bowl from the homunculus, who looked over at him and watched as he handed it to Amelia, who frowned. "Really? Again?"

"What?" Edward asked, going to reach for a spoonful of potatoes and put it on her plate.

"You're doing it again. You're doing that stupid thing where you don't let me handle stuff on my own." Amelia snapped. Darius let out a tired sigh, already knowing where this was going, and Izumi watched with piqued interest.

"I am not, I'm just passing you what you wanted," Edward said as he added another spoonful.

"Yeah, onto my plate! I can get my own potatoes, you know." She said as she took the bowl out of his hands.

"I never said you couldn't!" Edward defended.

"Then why are you serving it to me?" Amelia asked, "This has been going on for damn weeks, and I'm so sick of it! Why do you keep acting like this?"

"Oh, not again…" Heinkel sighed, his head going into his hands as he rubbed at his temples.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Edward snapped back.

"I'm sick of you treating me this way! Why do you keep pushing yourself in the middle like this? I get that you don't trust Greed, but he's literally passing me food that he's already eating! Where's the danger in that?!"

"I was just being nice!"

"He could have reached me without your help!"

Before Edward could utter another word, Izumi's hands slammed on the table, getting everyone's attention as she stood up, looking between Edward and Amelia, "You two. Outside. We're going to resolve this now."

"No, wait! Come back!" Amelia called out to Izumi and Sig, who were already long gone as they paddled away in their boat, "You can't be serious?!" She looked over at Edward, who seemed calm. "Your teacher just ditched us on an island! What the fuck?!"

"We'll be fine, apparently she thinks we need to cool our heads for a while." Edward sighed, crossing his arms. "Look, I've been here before, we'll be okay."

"Oh, we will?" Amelia glared at him, "You know, this is all your fault."

"My fault?!"

"Yeah! If you hadn't started acting so weird, we wouldn't even be here!"

"I was not acting weird! You were the one who was acting weird!"

"How the hell was I the weird one?"

"You freaked out over me handing you some potatoes!"

"I freaked out because you're acting like everything Greed gives me is somehow poisonous!"

"I don't understand why you trust him so much! He's a homunculus!"

"Yeah, and he's on our side! How the hell is that weird?!"

"You don't even like him!"

"I may not like him, but he's not a little asshole like you are!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SMALL?!"

"You! You little half-pint midget!"

She could see the veins bulging in Edward's neck as he was called the things he hated most. His hands were shaking, clearly itching to punch her, but he held them back, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SMALL, YOU SPOILED BRAT?!"

"At least I'm not some tiny little amoeba!"

"Oh yeah?! Well, you're a self-righteous little rich asshole!"

"And you're not even the size of a flea!"

"And you're a narcissistic bitch!"

Amelia's eyes went wide, rage burning behind her eyes as he said a word that she had been dreading she'd ever hear. Her entire demeanor shifted at the mention of it, no longer enraged and screaming, but rather leaning back and looking murderously calm. "What did you just call me…?" She asked in a calm, seething voice.

"You heard me!" Edward replied, crossing his arms, and glaring at her.

"You-! You son of a-!" She sputtered over her words angrily, her mind too focused on her rage to come up with a proper insult, "Fuck you, Ed!"

"Fuck you!"

She let out a loud scream in frustration, "Aaargh! I can't even talk to you like this!" Amelia flipped him off as she started stomping into the forest.

"Where are you going?!" Edward snapped at her.

"To get off this island and as far away from you as possible!" Amelia snapped back over her shoulder.

"Fine! See how well you get on without me!"

"Oh, I'll get on without you just fucking fine!"

"I'll bet you won't! You don't even know the first thing about survival!"

"Go fuck yourself, you asshole!" Amelia shouted, storming further into the forest, leaving Edward on the coast as she went to find her own means of getting off the island. Surely it couldn't be too difficult to find the means to transmute some kind of boat to get as far away from here as possible. She could just go back to Izumi's house and wait there with Greed and the others, who were probably all wondering why this was Izumi's solution to Edward and Amelia's fighting. She hadn't liked their arguing at the table, and she had practically shoved them into her rowboat and told them she was going to fix this here and now. She had told them that she'd be back for them in the morning, but Amelia couldn't stand to be around Edward at this time. How in the hell did she ever have a crush on someone so infuriatingly smothering?!

Amelia looked up at the island's surroundings. The trees were the same as all the others in the area, nothing particularly tropical, but still very much an island as the sand became dirt under her shoes. She looked back at the coastline, waiting to see if she could hear Edward shouting back at her, but she didn't hear anything. Instead, she continued on through the forest, her mind trying to think of a potential plan to get out of there and hopefully see the end of this ridiculous situation. Izumi's solution wasn't going to work, especially not with Edward being so… so…! She couldn't think of the right word to describe him, but she was only going to get angrier the more she thought about him and how annoyingly protective he had been of her. At first, she had thought it was kind of endearing that he wanted to make sure she was okay. But now it was just irritating, and it just made her feel like he couldn't trust her skills at all, even after he had praised them in their escape from the north.

She hated it, and she just wanted to put some space between her and Edward. Her plan, for the time being, was to go to the other side of the island, transmute a boat together that could carry her across the large expanse of lake, and hopefully get back onto the mainland. It's not like there wasn't plenty of wood she could transmute from the trees… though, admittedly, she didn't know the first thing about constructing a boat, she could figure it out. She was fairly confident she could at least build a raft.

Amelia could feel her hands shaking as she looked down at the remains of tree bark and grass that was piled up. She had been attempting transmutations for the better part of an hour, and her body was beginning to heavily protest any continued use. She could feel her fingers tingling as they started to go numb from all the energy that had been coming through her, and it wasn't happy. To top that off, she was completely exhausted, and her raft was little more than a few fallen tree branches from the tree she had tried to take down. It made sense, alchemically, that she could just rearrange the atoms of the tree itself and get it to come apart and fall in the way that she wanted, but it wasn't working out at all.

She let out a groan, falling onto her backside as she rubbed at her arms, "God damn it!" She cursed to herself as she tried to hurry and get feeling back in her hands. She had done more transmutations than this in Briggs! Then again, that was when Edward was missing, and she was afraid he was dead… She supposed she didn't have the energy to pull that kind of work again. She could barely bring her hands together to make a ring, she was shaking so much. She could feel some pain as her hands were going numb, and she knew she had to stop or she was going to seriously hurt herself. She needed a break, but she didn't really have anything to occupy her time on this island. Her phone was back with her coat at Izumi's place, with Greed and the others. She could only imagine how well Greed was handling them being gone, seeing as they were his 'possessions' and all.

She groaned and flopped back onto the ground, looking up at the trees that scattered the coastline of the other side of the island where she currently was. She could see some sunlight coming through the leaves, but that didn't really help her. Now that she was alone and tired, there wasn't much she could do except be alone with her thoughts. She… really didn't like that idea, especially since all she could think about was trying to get out of there, but at the same time, she didn't particularly want to leave Edward behind. Even for all of his weird smothering and overprotectiveness, she still cared about him and was starting to feel guilty for fighting with him as soon as they had arrived on the island.

She could only imagine what he was doing now that they were here. He didn't seem all that concerned when she stormed off, and she had gotten more comfortable with camping for the last 2 weeks since they had essentially done nothing but camping. He probably didn't have much reason to worry about her. She let herself relax into the dirt, taking a slow breath in and out as she thought over their situation. For the last 2 weeks, she and Edward had been traveling with the other guys, and it had been… well, admittedly a little annoying for everyone. She felt like it was almost impossible to have any time to herself, and they were constantly on the move, never really staying in a town for more than a night or two. She wanted to find a place to rest and relax and just… do nothing for a little while. Though, nothing would be more enjoyable if she had her phone with her. It wasn't like she could transmute one from tree bark or limestone that littered the island. There wasn't much of anything for her to do except explore, and she didn't want to sit around here thinking about how much Edward made her angry in these last couple of weeks.

She pushed herself up with a sigh, feeling the tingling had left her fingers finally. She knew better than to try another transmutation right away, and she pushed herself up onto her feet and started walking through the trees to go deeper into the forested area of the island. She wandered around in the natural environment, watching as the trees got thicker the deeper she went in. She walked around trees that seemed to be too close together, but all somehow survived together on that island. She could see some brightly colored mushrooms growing in different places in the tree roots, some were a bright red with white dots on it that she knew she was probably better off not touching, and some were a deep shade of earthy brown that reminded her of the mushrooms she used to see in grocery stores.

God, grocery stores. It wasn't like Amestris didn't have them, too, but they could be more considered marketplaces… and none of them were as big as the ones she had back home. How long had it been since she had even thought about home? The thought made her stop in her tracks as she tried to remember the last time she had thought about Sacramento. There were so many things about home that she missed, the convenience of grocery stores, the internet, her piano, her memory foam bed - what she wouldn't give for a real bed! She even missed her piano classes with her uptight teacher whose hair was always pulled back so tightly it looked like she was trying to give herself a back-alley facelift with the rubber band. And Kate… Kate was always in her classes.

Her stomach dropped a little as she realized she had barely thought about Kate since the incident in Central when they were trying to capture Gluttony. That time felt like an eternity ago…! She could only imagine what was happening to Kate in the gate now, sitting there and just waiting… She had no idea how she could even help her now. Edward was confident he could pull Alphonse's body out once he joined it with his soul, but how would he even do that without paying some kind of toll to open it? And then there was Kate's situation. She was a body and a soul inside of the gate, she didn't need to wait for anything except someone to take her out. Was human transmutation the only way to open the portal? What would she have to pay to get her friend back? A body and a soul were likely to be expensive… a body she could pay with her own, and her soul, but that would only reverse their situations. What if Kate wasn't able to survive in there? Could she eat? Or sleep? Was there anything keeping her alive? And she had been there for months… potentially, people could die after 3 days of no food or water, what if she was already decaying and rotting?

She was suddenly reminded of the day that Alphonse asked that same question about his body and remembered Edward's answer being that they had a unique connection from their transmutation being performed at the same time. She wasn't sure she and Kate had that same connection, and as far as they knew Alphonse's body was still alive, if very thin from Edward's description of him. And he had been there for years. Kate wouldn't be so lucky if they didn't have some kind of connection. They didn't exactly perform a transmutation together, so it wasn't likely they were connected… then again, how did she even get caught up in her transmutation? Kate was the one who performed it, and Amelia was fairly certain that she had been standing outside of the circle when she started it in her family's garage. Was it possible to get pulled into a transmutation without being inside of the circle and become affected by it? Edward would probably know about that.

She sighed as she thought about Edward and realized she had just been standing there, staring off into space for the last few minutes as she thought over these alchemy questions. Edward likely would have something of an answer for her about this, he was more familiar with the portal and alchemy in general than she was, but she wasn't about to go and ask him. Not after all of his antics had gotten them stuck on this island! She shook her head and took a deep breath in and out. She didn't need to ask him these questions, he needed time to stew and think over how this impromptu time-out on an island was all his fault!

She heard a rustling and looked over to see Edward a few yards away, walking towards one part of the island. He had stopped to grab something off of the ground, and she watched as he transmuted his automail into a kind of knife, beginning to cut at the long tree branch he had picked up before continuing to walk. Out of curiosity, she started to follow him, though she kept a bit of a distance so he didn't know she was there, being careful to avoid sticks on the ground, rocks, roots, anything that could give away her position, making sure to hide behind trees as she followed from a distance.

Soon enough, he came to the western end of the island, and she watched as he approached a small lagoon that was just barely cut off from the rest of the lake but looked deep enough to take a swim in. She saw that in the time it had taken him to walk, he had sharpened the tree branch into a long spear. She watched as he took off his boots, rolled up one pant leg over his flesh leg, and took off his coat, and his shirt. Her eyes widened a little as she looked over his body, having forgotten how muscular he actually was… wait, he actually seemed like he had more muscles than the last time she had seen him this bare. And she couldn't deny that it was really cool to see his automail arm in full display like that with the rest of him. He went out into the water, wading and holding up the spear as he went about knee-deep, looking into it and waiting. She could feel her heart racing a little bit as she kept looking at his back. Had he gotten taller? Now that she looked at him… she would have to compare their height at some point, it looked like he was having a little bit of a growth spurt now that she was looking at him.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she watched him suddenly plunge his handmade spear into the ground in the water, pulling it out with a fish on the end of it, coming up to shore with a satisfied grin on his face as he put the spear on his shoulder with his catch. She felt like her insides were melting from that sight alone. Why was that the most attractive thing she had ever seen him do?!

She turned around, shaking her head, and gently smacking her own cheeks to snap out of it, "No. No, no, no. I'm mad. I'm not about to turn into some horny little teenager!" She whispered to herself, "So what if he looks hot with his shirt off? And when he catches fish with a spear? This isn't a deserted island romance, this is a punishment, and it's his fault we're here! Angry! Stay angry!" She shook her head and started to walk away to head back to the place where she was working on her escape raft, muttering to herself to remember why she was angry in the first place. She huffed and puffed to herself as she walked back to the north side of the island, though she paused as she noticed something unusual on one of the trees.

One of the trees had marks in it, lines numbering roughly 10 in total for each little set. She moved her hand up to look over the scratches, all of them had been carved deep into the bark, and it looked like they had been put there years ago. She counted them up, and they numbered 30. For some reason, that stuck out to her in her mind, trying to think back to what she had heard before, remembering Alphonse had mentioned that their alchemy teacher had put him and Edward on an island for a month to fend for themselves. Was this that same island? It would explain how Edward knew how to survive out here, and how he knew exactly where to go to get food or things to make a shelter. She wondered what he had been doing for the last hour that she had been working? She supposed it didn't really matter all that much, she had her own plan, and while it was getting exhausting, she still had to keep working on it if she wanted to get out of there before night came around.

Amelia sat on the shore, arms tingling and sore from all the work she had done on the remains of her raft. She had managed to get it to look… well, somewhat like a raft, but she couldn't bring together enough grass to make a strong enough rope, and she was too tired to keep trying. In the distance, she could see the sun setting on the horizon to her left and she knew she wasn't going to be able to make her raft in the dark. She had no means of making a fire or any kind of light, and she wasn't even sure how to manipulate the air to create any kind of spark to do so. If nothing else, she could at least watch the last of the light of the day before she resigned herself to going to bed hungry, sitting down on the shore of the lake, hearing the gentle whispers of the waves reaching the sand that reminded her where she was as the orange orb of light slid down past a mountain range, and she lost sight of it completely.

She was feeling exhausted, hungry, and just plain tired. She made her way up, stretching and groaning as she knew the last bit of light she had would disappear completely soon. "God, I'm hungry…" She turned around, starting to head deeper into the forested area of the island to find some suitable spot where she could make some kind of bed for herself on the grass and hopefully stay there until they came back tomorrow, though her stomach growled in protest at the idea of not eating anything. She put her hand over her middle as she seemed to find a decent-looking clearing. "Oh, hush. You can survive without dinner for one night." She ran her hands over the grass, wanting to make sure she wasn't disturbing anything with her transmutation, or worse get something caught up in it that she didn't want. She jumped when she felt tiny feet touching her fingers, seeing a mouse run off in the tall grass away from her, "Ack! Ew, ew, ew!" She jumped up, shaking her hands as if it would get rid of something that the mouse left on her, though it left nothing at all. "Ugh! It's so much easier with the rest of the guys… animals never come near us at camp." Of course, their usual campsites had some kind of fire, and two huge human chimeras to ward off animals. It was better to travel in a group, and she was definitely feeling some of that struggle.

As she sighed and forced herself to relax, she smelled something… smoky. She lifted her head, sniffing at the air as she realized it was some wood burning… and something else that was getting her attention. Her stomach eagerly growled, urging her to follow it, and she did. She walked through the forest, using what little light there was until she could see another orange light up ahead as the forest around her began to dim as the last of the sun's light disappeared from the trees and her sight. It wasn't too long until she realized it was a little fire by the southern coast where she and Edward had come in… and of course, there was Edward, sitting on a log seat for himself right near it. She had meant to keep quiet once she saw Ed's silhouette, but she wasn't able to see where her feet were stepping in the dark, and a twig snapped under her heel, getting Edward to turn his head to look back into the woods.

"Amelia?" He called, looking over his shoulder to see if she was there. Seeing no point in hiding, she started to come out of the trees, looking at Edward and he looked right back at her. He didn't seem angry, his expression was neutral, and she got a closer look at what he was doing. Right next to his fire was four fish being charred on sticks right next to it. She could hear her stomach grumbling intensely, and she again put her hand over her belly to try and silence it. She couldn't help feeling a little sheepish as Edward grinned, "You hungry?"

"Yes," She admitted, "And… I'm really tired. And kinda cold."

Edward shrugged, shifting over on the log bench to make room for her, "I figured you might be." He gestured to the now-open spot next to him and she came to sit beside him. She got a closer look at the fire, seeing more than a few fish roasting in front of it on some sticks planted into the ground. Edward reached for one, looking it over before handing it to her, "It might be a little charred, but it's been there long enough, just watch the bones and you should be fine." He warned her.

She took it and started to nibble at the meat while he checked one of the other fish he had cooking, "It's kinda burnt." She commented as she picked at the skin of it.

"It's charred, not burnt." Edward corrected her, "And that's what happens when you cook meat over a campfire, it gets a little charred."

"This is burnt, Ed."

"You want it raw, instead?" Edward sassily asked her, and she rolled her eyes before going back to eating the fish, choosing not to respond to that, much to Edward's satisfaction, "Yeah, I thought not." He reached for another fish and started eating. Amelia saw how he would pull some of the meat off with his automail hand to avoid some of the bones. She attempted to do the same and cursed as she realized how hot the fish was. Edward chuckled and she frowned, "Oh, come on. If I had done the same thing, you would laugh your ass off."

She sighed, "Yeah…" She knew he was right, going back to trying to eat it as she had before, the two of them just eating in silence around the fire that Edward had made. It seemed like he had a much better grasp of how this island worked, and how to live off of it. He really seemed to have this nailed down, and now he was just letting her join him without question. She was eating some of his food, sitting around his fire at his small campsite. As she looked around, she could see a small area set up with leaves and grass on the ground as a kind of makeshift bed. There were actually two of them, side by side. Edward had gotten everything ready for both of them to be somewhat comfortable on this island, and he didn't even seem to care about how she had screamed at him before. She glanced over at him, watching him eat still and she let out a small sigh, "I'm sorry about earlier."

"You are?" Edward turned to her curiously.

She nodded, "I was screaming at you and blaming you… I kind of made a mess of things, and I could have handled it more… civilly than I did. So, for that, I'm sorry." She looked over at him, Edward looking back at her blankly for a moment before nodding sagely.

"Alright, apology accepted." He said and went to take another bite of his food. Amelia frowned as she looked at him, watching him eat, clearly expecting him to have done something more other than just say 'apology accepted.'

"So… are you going to acknowledge what you did wrong to get us stuck in time-out on this stupid island?" She pointedly asked.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Edward replied casually.

"The hell you didn't!" She snapped almost immediately after.

"What are you talking about? You just blew up for no reason!"

"No reason?! Ed, you've been smothering me since we started traveling like this! You've hardly left me alone!"

"I have too left you alone!"

"When?!"

"I don't follow you to the bathroom, do I?"

"What?" That threw her off, "Why- No, ew! Of course you don't follow me to the bathroom, Jesus Christ." She sighed, realizing she was only just going to start yelling at him again if this kept up, "I just- I feel like you don't trust me anymore, and I don't know why that is."

"Yeah, I don't know either." Edward replied, "I trust you way more than everyone else we're traveling with." He took a bite from his fish, and Amelia frowned.

"Then why do you act like something bad is going to happen every time I get separated from you for one reason or another?" She asked, "Seriously, what brought this on? Before this, at Briggs, you were telling me what a great alchemist I was, and how I've come so far, and I've made this great progress in combat and then you just… don't let me use it. The only transmutations I've done in the last two weeks are for my little bed that I make at camp every night. You haven't let me do anything else."

"You don't need to do anything else," Edward replied as he munched on another bite, "I can handle the other stuff okay, and you shouldn't become too reliant on alchemy anyway. It's a great science, but it only takes you so far."

"Edward," Amelia's stern tone caught his attention, "Are you seriously saying there's been nothing wrong with the way that things have changed between us in the last few weeks?" Edward paused to think about his answer, and Amelia continued, "Because to be totally honest with you, I think there's a big problem. You can't seem to let me be alone for too long, and while you are my friend, I feel like you don't trust me to handle my own problems, and that just makes me feel like you don't trust me." Edward sighed as he listened to her, looking down at his dinner as she kept going, "Ed, you're my best friend, and definitely the person I'm closest to in all of this, but… I don't know, it just feels like I'm being hounded all the time. If not by you, by Greed or something."

"See, that's-" Edward turned to her, immediately picking up on that last sentence, "That's my problem. You and Greed are spending way too much time together alone. I don't trust him with you at all!"

"It's not like he's done anything to me," Amelia said with a frown, "And I'm pretty sure he won't. Greed can be an ass, but it's still Ling's body. I doubt he would let a homunculus assault me or something awful like that."

"You don't know that he can't still overpower him," Edward warned.

"Actually, I do," Amelia replied, and Edward balked in his response, a little surprised and confused, "In all the time we've been talking, Greed's mentioned that he and Ling talk to each other all the time. Ling can't stop him from doing everything he doesn't like, like stealing stuff or being an ass to random strangers on our journey, but he could take over in the case of something big like that."

"When did he tell you this?" Edward asked.

"A few days ago, he came with me when I was going into town to get more rations and we talked." She said, "We mostly just spend our mornings talking to each other, and I get to learn a little about him every time we do. It's not exactly the best intelligence gathering, but it's also getting Greed to trust me. I mean, look at where we are! You think he would have made the impulse decision to come to Dublith to honor his old crew if I hadn't talked to him about it?"

"How did you guys even get to talking about it?"

"Oh, God, I don't remember, we were talking about why people bury other people and stuff." She sighed, "Look, the point is the more Greed trusts us, the easier I think it will be to convince him to be more on our side, or at least convince him that his side is our side."

"What, you're trying to make him human?"

"Not in the literal sense, but at least human enough to where he would help us in our goal of defeating Father." She looked up at Edward, "From what I've seen of him, and what I know about him, I don't think he has it in him to actually kill his father. Beat him down, sure, but not kill him. He talks a big game, and he's definitely very proud of who he is as Daddy's Little Rebel, but I don't think he would ever be able to actually go through with killing his father, as much as it seems like he could. He's pretty soft under that steely exterior he tries to put out." She reached for the fish, the meat having cooled down enough to where it was warm to the touch, but not hot. She tugged off a piece and started to eat it, "He keeps everyone at an arms' distance because he doesn't want to risk anyone seeing that, but it's not hard to see at all if you know where to look. Having Ling with him probably doesn't help either, he has to be acting as Greed's conscience in the middle of all of this, telling him right from wrong in the middle of listing off his meal cravings."

Edward chuckled, "Ling lists his food cravings to him?"

"All the time," Amelia laughed, "Greed was complaining to me about how Ling kept talking about chicken and the different ways it was prepared and it was all he could think about trying. It's why we got that canned chicken from the market the other day."

"That's why?" Edward laughed, "Oh man, who would have thought the moocher prince would have a homunculus wrapped around his finger like that?"

"Well, it is his body. They're just stuck sharing." Amelia joked, and Edward laughed again before going back to eating. She took another bite of her own food, smiling as she realized how comfortable it was to just talk to Edward again. It felt like they hadn't really talked at all in the past couple of weeks, so it was nice to be able to sit and eat with him like they were friends again. They slipped into a comfortable silence for a few moments, the conversation starting to slip as Amelia tried to remember what they had been talking about before going on that tangent about her and Greed.

Edward seemed to be in a similar state of thought, "You know… It's not that I don't trust you're capable of handling yourself." He said in a soft voice, getting Amelia's attention, "It's more that I just… worry about you. I mean, before all of this, back when you just became my apprentice and we started your training, it's like you've always been by my side, and now that you're spending so much time with Greeling… I don't know." He sighed, "I guess… maybe I just don't like it that you're spending so much time with him because it means I don't get to see you as much." Amelia's heart fluttered a little at hearing that Edward wanted to see her and spend time with her, "And maybe that's kind of why I've been acting this way. I mean, you're my friend, but you're also the only girl here and… you know what I'm getting at, right?"

She nodded, "You're worried because I'm at a higher risk than you because I'm a girl."

Edward looked up at her, "Yeah, and there's a lot of really horrible people out there, I've met some of them, and you have too." He looked up at her, "Like back at Briggs when Kimblee pulled you away for some private meeting? I was freaking out then, too. After everything we'd heard about the guy, and then him getting you alone in a room…" She smiled gently at him.

"I'm sorry for worrying you," She said, "But to be fair to Kimblee, he's a murdering psychopath, not a raping one." She took another bite of her meal, looking back over at Edward when she heard no response to see him look at her with a pale face and wide eyes. "What? Is that not what you were thinking about?"

"No! Is that what you were thinking about?" Edward asked, horrified, leaning in and looking at her in concern.

Amelia leaned back slightly, not having expected this at all, "Um… I thought that's what you meant…? I mean, girls hear about that kind of stuff all the time, we always have to take precaution against it, so…" She sighed, "Look, I get where you're coming from about all of this, I do, but with me and Greed it's not as bad as you think." She smiled at him, "You're my friend, and if something goes wrong, I do trust you to have my back and help me when I need it. I just… don't need it as often as you think I do."

Edward sat back, letting out a long breath through his nose, "Yeah… and I guess knowing Ling is still in there annoying Greed helps me with that, too." He turned to Amelia with a grin, "I'll bet he spends entire days listing off all of his favorite foods to him." Amelia laughed at the image of Ling pestering Greed about his perfect menu to eat.

"God, probably," She laughed, "And poor Greed. I'm willing to bet he wouldn't eat at all if it wasn't for Ling." Edward laughed along with her.

"Poor Greed nothing, it just gives him an excuse to be more demanding and ask for foods we can't get."

Amelia snorted out a laugh, "Yeah, you're right." She smiled over at him, "So… does this mean we're good again?"

Edward nodded, "Yeah, we're good again. I'll give you a little space, but… I'll still be keeping an eye on Greed."

"Fine, do that," Amelia agreed, "And I'll try to blow up on you less." Edward nodded, more than happy with that arrangement between the two of them. "And… that means you apologize, right?" Edward rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"Fine, yes, I apologize for being so smothering the last few weeks." He said, and Amelia smiled. Seeing her smiling at him made him smile right back, "It's nice to talk like this again."

"Yeah, I think so, too." Amelia agreed. She went back to eating alongside Edward, the two of them finishing off their first fish before going to the second one that each of them had cooking, "So, where did you learn how to do all of this stuff, anyway?"

"I've been here before," Edward said casually, "When Al and I were kids, Teacher dumped us on this island for a month for the first part of our training. We only had one knife between us, and we weren't allowed to use any alchemy."

"Alphonse mentioned that to me!" Amelia said, "I saw a tree back there, it looked like it was some kind of calendar. This is really that same island?" Edward nodded as he bit into his food.

"Yeah, same island. When we were here, she made sure to teach us a very important lesson, not just these great survival skills." Edward said.

"What lesson was that?" Amelia asked. If he learned it from his teacher, she may as well learn it from him.

"One is all, and all is one." Edward said, "She told us we had to figure out what that meant before the end of the month or she would send us back home."

"So, what does it mean?"

Edward turned to look at Amelia, "What do you think it means?"

She shrugged, "It kind of sounds like… All is the world, and the one is you, or me, or just… the individual, I guess." She said, and Edward nodded.

"Yeah, that's the main message of it, but that's not the whole message," He said, "It's talking about a lot more than that. The thing that got me started thinking about it was back when we were first on that island for the first week, we didn't have any survival skills at all, and we were really hungry… I ended up eating a few ants to try and keep myself going."

"Ants? Really?" She scrunched up her nose in disgust, "That's gross, Ed."

"Yeah, it was," Edward laughed, "But that got me thinking: If I hadn't eaten them, I might have died and then I would have been eaten by them. I'd go into the earth and become grass, and then rabbits would eat that, and I know it sounds like I'm just talking about the food chain, but I'm not."

"It sounds like the circle of life," Amelia commented, and that made Edward pause, wordlessly asking her to elaborate, "It's the cycle of life and death. We're born, we live, and we die, and when we die our bodies become fertilizer for grass that feeds different animals, which are hunted to feed different people, who still go on to die and feed them."

"Yeah, that's pretty close, but it's a lot more than that." Edward encouraged, "Like, take this island for example. A long time ago, it could have been at the bottom of the ocean, and in a few thousand years from now, it might be the peak of a mountain. Everything we see, everyone we meet is connected, all caught up in this same great, unseen flow that includes our world, or hell our universe even. Compared to something as huge as that, you and I are just miserable little specs that are just a small part of a much greater flow, but by putting all those little specs together, all those little 'ones,' you get one great big 'all.'"

Amelia nodded, "I think I get it. We're all part of this one huge endless flow, and that flow wouldn't even exist without us."

"Exactly," Edward smiled, "You caught onto that a lot quicker than we did."

"Well, I imagine I'm a good deal older than when you first learned it, and I had a teacher that didn't tell me a phrase and leave me alone for a month." Edward laughed at her response. "Seriously, what if you died or something? That's kind of nuts."

"Ah, we weren't alone, Teacher had her friend Mason come and watch us." Edward said, "He looked after us and made sure we didn't die of starvation… but he also kind of dressed up like this insane lunatic to make us think we would constantly encounter him on the island." Amelia grimaced, "I know how it sounds, trust me, but it was to build up our survival skills. He never intended to hurt us, just scare us. Once we found our footing, he left us alone and stuck around for a month to make sure we would survive until the day our Teacher came to get us."

"Still sounds kind of nuts."

"It is." Edward agreed, and the two shared a small laugh before going back to eating. The two chatted for the rest of the night, things resolved between the two of them and they were back to how they were before.

With their food finished and the fire beginning to die out, Edward suggested they make their way to bed and stargaze until they fell asleep. It was very easy to do so on the island, considering there was no light from anywhere near town to keep them from seeing the stars. Amelia could see so many more than she saw that night at Fort Briggs, and the two of them talked for a little while, going back and forth on different things as they lay in their small beds, staring at the vast sky and talking about small nothings. Eventually, it got to where they stopped talking, and Edward fell asleep. Amelia stayed up just a little longer, turning over onto her side when she heard Edward's deep breathing, staying and watching him sleep for what felt like a small eternity, but at the same time was likely only about an hour or so. When she was sure he was in a deep enough sleep to not notice anything, she carefully reached out for his automail hand, letting her fingers slide gently over his metal palm before carefully linking her fingers through his. She blushed a little as she realized this would probably be the most intimate contact she would ever get with Edward, but she made herself content with it, holding onto his metal hand until she was about to drift off. As she started to fall asleep, she pulled her hand away so that she wasn't touching him anymore, but she was still outstretched towards him as she closed her eyes and let the deep darkness of sleep take her.

When the morning came, Izumi would return them to Greed and the others, but for tonight, she at least had this time with Edward all to herself.