Hi everybody...throw whatever and as much of it as you want at me... It's been like what? Four months since I last updated? I feel horrible about that and I'm really really sorry. I've been really busy with homework, exams and a childhood friend of mine recently died :(

Nobody guessed for my guessing game except for one person D: It made me sad. NicouleCuriosity, I'm sorry, but no that is not what happened but you still get a cookie! Thank-you for guessing!

Anyways, enjoy the chapter and remember to Review!!

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Shoveling. The dictionary states it as: 'To dig or clear with or as if with a shovel'. But I state it as an annoying pain in my ass that I just so promised my parents that I would do, and wish I hadn't. For some people, especially those with upper body strength, they don't find shoveling a hard task. Some just see it as a chore that does need to be completed and go to do so. Although I have never met a person like this, I do know they're out there. Or at least I think they are... But shoveling for a lazy sixteen year old girl with barely any upper body strength with a remotely large driveway is a very hard task. The tempature may be cold but I'm boiling. I've already shed my winter jacket and now I'm just left with a sweater and gloves. But I honestly don't feel the cold winter air. Oh, how I wish I could just go inside.

I frown at the snow covering my driveway, old footprints scattered through out it, some animal and some human. Off on my lawn, my night colored cat stood out like a sore thumb as she pranced through the fluffy white substance. Specks of it could be seen on her and looked like a crazy design someone painted on her. Occasionally, she'd stop and look around before darting off in another direction, chasing something that I couldn't see. I just wish I could be having as much fun as her. Sometimes, winter is a very cruel season.

Sighing, I stab the shovel into one of my snow piles before strolling over to the car I can't drive and hop up onto it's trunk. I lean back onto my hands and stare up at the cloudy sky. It was ready to burst open and pour down on us with snow, like it has been for the last few days, but I hope it holds off on that. I don't want to deal with more snow than I need to. I then gaze to my right at the empty parking spot where my parents' car would have been if they were home. As much as I don't want to admit it, I do miss them. Before the brothers moved in with me, the house was just too quiet and lonely. I was so stoked that they were leaving me at first, but that soon turned into boredom and an empty house that needed some new adventures. Then came the Elric Brothers.

Attempting to will back the blush I knew was growing on my face would have been pointless. It would've appeared anyway and all the effort would turn out to be useless. Just thinking about Ed does that to me now, and it's frustrating. It's been a few days since he, well, hugged me, but I still blush everytime I think about it and get this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. God, what is going on with me lately? I thought our relationship was just supposed to be bickers and insults and then this happens. I don't even have an idea as to why I feel the way I do around him now, and it's driving me to near insanity. I just want to know what's going on.

Although I did silently vow that I was going to tell Ed everything that went on between Chris and I, I have yet to work up the nerve to do so. I can't seem to do it. Everytime I open my mouth, the words die in my throat and I end up making myself look like a complete idiot. I have to do it. I have to, I have to...

Al has been completely supportive throughout all of this. He's such a little sweetheart, and I truely consider him as the brother I never had. He understands me, to some extent, and tries to help when he notices something bothering me. And over the last few days, he's been doing just that. We've been having one on one talks about stuff and he puts in his opinion whenever he can. As embarassing as it had been, I even discussed the stuff that's been going on with me whenever I'm around Ed, the feelings I get. But all he did was smile and tell me I'd understand soon enough. Some help that was.

"I wonder what they're doing right now, anyways," I murmur to myself, looking towards my living room window. That's when an idea struck.

Jumping down off the car, I kneel down to the ground and scoop up some snow into my gloved hands. I shape it into a ball and examine my work quickly before jogging over my snow covered lawn to my living room window. The snow flies as I kick my feet up after each step, leaving a white pattern over my dark jeans and boots. Ebony stares at me with her bright yellow-green eyes, but then trots after me with her tail wagging in excitement as she joins in on my idea. When I stop, she blinks at me curiously and eyes the white ball of snow in my hands like she's asking me what I'm doing. And I understood her. I smile and place my index finger to my lips in a 'shh' motion and it almost looked like she nodded. I loved my cat, even if she's a complete pain in my ass sometimes, and she's been like a really good friend to me since we got her. So I really wouldn't have her any other way.

I peer into the living room, scanning it for the only two occupants it could be holding. Immediately I spot them, there backs towards myself and the backs of their heads the only things I could see of them. It was good enough, though. I back away a few steps and pull back my arm, throwing the snowball at the window. It hits the glass with a 'Thump', making the two of them jump in surprise and probably to stop reading whatever book they had in their hands at this moment in time. The brothers look at eachother first, then the remains of the snowball against the glass, and then me. I just laugh at their expressions and wave at them, motioning them to come outside. Another look is exchanged, but they end up giving in and get up.

I grin. For the whole day they've been reading and studying, I think they should at least come outside and get a breath of fresh air. It's not that I think that they shouldn't research and try to get back to their world, I just believe that they should have some fun too. Y'know, enjoy their lives while they still have them. I don't know if I'm just being naive, or what, but this is what I believe; you only have one life and you should enjoy it while you still have it, even if it's a little bit at a time.

I scoop up another ball of snow and wait until I saw them walk out the door. Once I hear the 'click' and it begins to swing open, I aim and fire with all my might and it hits my target right in the side of the head.

Al and I start to laugh at the look on Ed's face as he wipes snow off of it. Ed growls angrily and forms his own snowball before throwing it at me, pelting me in the shoulder.

We glare at eachother. "THIS MEANS WAR!!!" I cry out. In seconds, a fury of snowballs were being thrown back and forth, Ed and I trying to hit eachother as much as possible. It wasn't until Ed accidently hit Al that the young Elric joined in.

I scream as the two double team me and run in the opposite direction, still getting hit by the darned things as I desperately try to escape. One nails me in the back of my head, causing me to yelp and for triumphant laughter to come from Ed. However, I may just be able to get my revenge. I smirk and jump up, grabbing onto a branch from the old tree in my yard, making it shake and dump the snow it held onto the brothers.

"Feel my icy wrath, Elrics!" I laugh manically, dropping back down to the ground.

Shaking the snow off of themselves, Al is the first to begin to chuckle, then Ed and I, before it becomes full blown laughter. We just stand there and laugh together, whether it be because of our childish game or the feeling of hilarity caused by said game. I don't really know, but at the same time, I don't really care. Just to be able to stand here and laugh with them, after all of the things that have been occuring over the last few days, is enough; I don't need a reason. Even if we look like idiots right now, even if the reason is probably stupid, I don't care.

So much for shoveling.

"Here," I say, setting down mugs full of hot chocolate down onto a cleared off area of my coffee table. Edward and Alphonse nod their thanks before claiming one of the mugs as their own. I do the same, then plop down into a chair with a relaxed sigh.

After the snowball fight - and the laughing fit - we began to do a little more fun winter activities. Though it was mostly just more snowball wars and building a snowman, it was still fun. Then, once we finished all that, we agreed to come back inside to warm up and to change out of our wet clothes. Yes, the brothers do have extra clothes if you were wondering. I'm not that cruel to just make them walk around in the same outfit day after day after day. Melina and I had managed to find some clothes for them downtown (we do have a clothes store, though be it very small and not that great), and had Zach donate an outfit or two. It was actually quite a surprise to find out that Zach's clothes fit the brothers, and luckily the brothers weren't really that picky when it came to their clothes, making mine and Melina's job easier. I mean, there were a few lines we weren't allowed to cross (like certain colors), but for the most part it was easy. Thus we were now sitting in my living room, clad in clean, warm clothes and drinking hot chocolate.

I tap my finger nails against the white mug in my hands, staring down into the deep brown liquid in thought. I then glance over to the empty corner on the other end of the couch, remembering the joyful shine of lights reflecting off of Christmas tree decorations, the smell of pine, and the wrapped presents under the tree. But now it was just blank, almost like it's waiting for a tree to be there once more. Unfortunately, I doubt there's going to be one.

"Katrina?" Al's worried voice interupts my thoughts and I jump. He continues, "Are you okay?"

I sigh, "Yeah, just feeling a bit nostalgic, I guess."

"How so?" Ed asks curiously.

"I was just remembering all the old Christmas' I've had with my family. The bad cookies my sister used to make, my Dad complaining about putting up the Christmas lights, my Mom going absolutely crazy about almost everything. It was like everything had to be absolutely perfect," I reply, smiling sadly, "This is going to be the first Christmas without anybody from my family. So I'm nostaglia's best friend right now." I fall silent, contemplating if or if not now is the right time. In the end, I sigh once more, and rub my temple, deciding that I've held it off long enough. "Listen; you guys remember Chris, right?" I wonder quietly as a I set down my mug.

"Kat...you don't have to tell us," Ed tells me, but I shake my head.

"No, I want to," I respond. "Well, uh..where to start... Um, Chris moved here about five years ago, when I just entered Grade 7. We were actually pretty quick friends, and Melina, him and I hung out sometimes before he asked me out in Grade 8. Back then he was just..really sweet, and he understood me, and at that time he seemed like a really good guy. But of course, I was wrong," I frown at a spot on the floor, disbelief of how stupid I was back then running through me. How could I be so blind? "It started out great for the first few months, until Summer vacation came. Melina and I decided to go to the beach, but when we got there, he was there to surprise me. It really was one hell of a surprise..." I scoff, hitting the back of my head against the old arm chair I'm sitting in. It's too soft though, not giving me the jolt of pain that I want to inflict on myself for ever considering him a 'good guy'.

"He was there with some of his buddies, and after I said a quick 'hi' to them, Mel and I went out to the lake and sat on a floaty together, just talking. We floated closer to the place where they were sitting and decided to shut up and see what they were talking about. They said I was 'ugly', that there were 'better girls' out there for him. All he did was laugh," I grind out, the old anger from back then reopening old wounds. "I go to confront him the next day and guess what I find. I find him sucking face with one of the 'better girls' which just so happened to be my arch enemy. Next thing I know, he tells Nicoule to tell me that it's over and he moved away the next day. Fucking bastard didn't even say good-bye in person, losing whatever respect left that I had for him," I sit up straight from my position of staring up at the roof, swiping away any tears that sting in my eyes. I don't need to cry again, I've already cried enough over a lost cause. "After that, I cut my hair and changed my entire being, reminding myself every day that I would never be so blind to a guy again. I never realised he was changing through out the time we were dating into that...thing he became," I finish off, letting everything fall silent after.

I think that it was a good thing that I told them because now the brothers know at least a little bit more about my past, but it's still unfair that I know practically everything about their lives. It makes me feel guilty that I know all this information about the two of them, and the only things they really know are my personality, my favorite color, and a few bits and pieces of my past. It makes me want to make it up to them somehow, but really, I don't think they want to spend a whole day listening to my entire life story. They'd probably fall asleep from being so bored.

My life was never glamorous or exciting. I've always lived in a valley in such a small town that hardly anyone has heard of. Through out my entire life, the only thing that really might have been the most interesting to me or my friends was entering High School because it meant new teachers, new people, and a new beginning to us. Oh, and the second most interesting thing might have been puberty. That was it.

"How long was your hair, before you cut it?" Al asks tentively, trying to find a way to break the uncomfortable silence.

I laugh a little at his question, "It was pretty long. To about my...mid-back, I think." He looks at me in surprise and I grin goofily at him, "Hard to picture, huh?"

"I think you'd look nice with long hair."

I look at Edward in shock, a light blush coming to my cheeks. Did he...? The blonde looks away and his younger brother smirks knowingly at him. He did! Since when does Ed compliment me, of all people?! We're just supposed to be friends, aren't we? I mean, we just settled this fact on the walk; but now with the hugging, compliments, and weird feelings, it makes me wonder. Even now, I couldn't stop feeling incredibly happy and the genuine smile gracing my lips. The compliment, no matter how simple it was, makes me happy. It makes me feel better after the story I had just told them.

"Really? I guess I'll have to skip my next hair cut then," I muse, running a hand through my short hair. It had grown since the first time I met them, even if it was just a little.

Ed turns his golden eyes back to me and smiles. The sight of it makes my heart run, and for my nerves to go on hyper-drive. But why? Why do I feel like this when ever he does something as simple as that? I know I've been nervous around guys before, but I always have been. They just have that effect on me. However, this feeling was different, and I know I've never felt it before, ever. It was warm, and it made me happy; happier then I ever have been.

I gasp softly, before saying a quick 'one minute' and darting toward the bathroom. Once the door is shut, I lean my back against it and look into the mirror. Running another hand through my hair, I silently wish that it grow faster then it is, and estimate when it might reach the back of my shoulders. Unfortunately, that probably won't be for a while. But luckily, I now know one of the answers to my questions, and I'm nervous and excited to experiencing this finally. I just had to wait for the right guy to come along.

That guy turned out to be Edward. It also turns out that I'm falling in love with him.

Who woulda thunk it?

Well I hope you guys liked it. I kinda got lazy towards the end, but I dunno if that shows or not :P Oh yeah, I didn't do this at the top so I'll do it now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist, but I own my OC's and the plot.

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