Berlin, Germany. 1924.

"Edward, you're dripping paint everywhere!" Noah hastened to place a towel under the sopping paint brush and dabbed at a few green blotches on the blonde's shirt with a wet sponge.

Alphonse trotted down the winding wire staircase carrying a gray tarp to spread across the oak tiling. "You really have to be more careful brother; we're supposed to be painting the walls not the floor."

"It's not my fault, if you had been quicker to bring that down from the attic this wouldn't have happened."

The younger male handed the tarp to Noah who smiled hesitantly and began to spread it across the floor. "Well if you hadn't been so impatient and had just waited for me there wouldn't be paint on the floor."

Edward raised his voice and jabbed a finger into his brother's chest. "Yeah well-"

"Boys calm down." Gracia shuffled in through the open French doors and placed a crystal vase containing dyed blue roses on the window sill. "There you go Noah, the shop looks cheerier already." The woman placed her right hand on the small of her back and her left over the bulge of her stomach.

"Thank you ma'am." The fortuneteller smiled warmly at the older female. "Do you need help with anything?"

"Noah please call me Gracia, and Edward and Alphonse were kind enough to help me move a few things around and organize the new shipment earlier this morning." She moved her left hand to rest on her back beside her right. "Isn't that right boys?"

Alphonse responded with a cheery 'yes' and Edward mumbled a 'whatever' under his breath which earned him a kick to the knee from his brother.

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Amestris. 1924.

"General!" Jean swung Mustang's office door open and bent over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Had the idiot run to the Central Militia Base from the west outpost?!

"Stop calling me that Havoc." Roy growled and threw a letter opener across the room at the blonde's head and it embedded itself into the door frame. "What do you want?"

"Riza wanted me to give you this…" He held up and torn package covered in duct tape that he'd fished out of his pocket. "She said she'd shoot me if I didn't get it to you by noon."

The former general's left eye visibly twitched and he motioned for Havoc to hand over the ragtag parcel. "What the hell is it?"

Jean tossed the box across the small office and it landed with a soft 'thunk' on the desk. "I have no idea, but she was threatening me so it must be important." A hop, skip and jump later and Roy looked up to find Havoc napping on his couch.

"Some soldier you are."

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Berlin, Germany. 1924.

"Damn it!" Edward placed his bleeding thumb in his mouth and yelled for Alphonse to bring him a bandage. "Stupid mouse!" The blonde slapped the floor with his mechanical arm causing a small tremor that sent the aforementioned creature running.

"Alphonse where's that ban-" The blonde looked up to find his brother looking at him quizzically from his bedroom door bandage in hand. "Oh. Thanks."

"Is that a transmutation circle?"

"Huh?" Edward looked down at the smudged chalk drawing he's was currently sitting on. "Not anymore it isn't." He grabbed his bed for support as he got up and brushed off the back of his pants. "Oh well. It didn't work anyways."

Alphonse took his brother's bleeding finger between his hands and carefully wrapped the almost forgotten bandage around it. "Then why did you make it?"

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Amestris. 1924.

Roy put his pen down and cast a side glance at the book Riza had sent him via Havoc. He snorted. That man would do anything for a woman, especial Riza, and that anything included the hundred-fifty miles he'd run that morning to deliver a book to his former commanding officer.

The brunette sighed and plucked the thing off the corner of his desk and flipped through the pages leaning back in his chair without a care in the world. Wait. He flipped back several pages and stared dumbly at the design scrawled on the page. A transmutation circle. The exact transmutation circle he'd been looking for. Mustang slipped his finger between the pages to keep his place and flipped the book closed to read the title. 'This isn't a book.' He thought to himself realization dawning on his face. 'This is a journal. Edward's journal.'

It was decided. He would set to work as soon as his shift ended.