Welcome back! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I only have two hours of internet time per day, and I rarely ever write up quick little one thousand word chapters anymore, so I can't exactly get them posted every day like I used to, heh. This likely would've actually been a much longer chapter if I had been willing to keep going with this one chapter, but I'm not sure how long my floppy disk will last before it corrupts, so I don't want to have to rely on it for too long. Anyway, hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: Two words: I don't own FullMetal Alchemist.

Ed woke up the next morning when he felt a vibration come through the bottom of the bathtub that felt like someone had just slammed a door and was walking across the room. In response, he sat up and looked around. Sylvia walked up to him, smiling, and holding a plate in her hands. "Good morning, Sleepyhead. How's the forehead?"

Ed reached up and touched the bandage, which by now was soaking wet since he'd been sleeping under the water with it wrapped around his head, and nodded slightly before responding, "It's fine I guess."

Apparently, Sylvia knew that that was the best kind of affirmative answer she could get out of Ed, because she relaxed her shoulders and smiled as though he'd said yes, and then she went and placed the plate she was holding on the upside down washtub that was still positioned in front of the bathtub. She stood back up and turned to Ed. "You haven't eaten in awhile, have you?" Ed turned and looked at her with a question written across his face as though he was wondering how the heck she could tell that when he hadn't told her, since he was trying to keep his life a secret.

At this, Sylvia threw back her head and laughed. Well, at least she was able to be happy. Somebody needed to be happy in this world. Ed hung his head and looked down at the water, as if in contemplating it. Sylvia then knelt down next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Edward, you really can't hide much from me. I know that you're not well. I know what sick human beings look like, and what sick fish look like, and you have the signs of both of them."

Edward wasn't sure if he should give the girl a glare in response to that comment, since he wasn't too keen on being referred to as a fish, but he let it slide. It was true, after all…his tail WAS showing the signs of a sick fish. He was pale all over his body, for that matter. Was this all from not eating anything for a few days?

Sylvia interrupted his thoughts. She grabbed a forkful of the food that was on the plate and shoved it into Ed's mouth without warning, forcing him to swallow it after he had choked a couple times. "You have to eat, fishboy…you're obviously going to get sick if you don't."

Ed turned and glared at her. Fishboy? That had been uncalled for. "Are you trying to turn me into a cannibal? I can't eat fish!" He spat and rubbed the residue off of his mouth, trying to cleanse himself from the offending substance, though nothing had actually come out of his mouth when he had spat, since he'd already been forced to swallow the forkful of fish that Sylvia had given him.

Sylvia couldn't help herself, and started laughing again. She shook her head and then slapped Ed's face, sending him back into the bathtub unexpectedly. "Edward, you idiot…you're not a fish! It's not cannibalism! Just because you bear some similarities to one doesn't mean you ARE one! Humans are mammals…does that mean it's cannibalistic to eat other mammals?" She paused for a moment to let her words drive home, and Edward squirmed a bit under her glare. This girl was a bit too much like Winry…and that was simultaneously comforting and scary at the same time. No, wait a minute…forget comforting, it was just pure scary.

Sylvia cleared her throat. "Just because you have a fish's body doesn't mean you can't eat fish. Heck, I suspect that you actually NEED to eat it, since there isn't going to be a lot else to eat where you're going…that's why I chose this for you to eat." She locked her stare onto Edward's face, and waited for a response. He wasn't exactly willing to give one immediately, since that Winry stare of hers was just too terrifying, but finally, he had to give in. Darn, he could just never win against that Winry stare.

"Fine, give me the plate." Sylvia didn't bother to correct him about his manners, and just handed him the plate of fish she had prepared for him. Edward proceeded to devour the contents of the plate faster than she thought any human was even capable of eating. Well, Ed wasn't exactly human, but his top half was built like one, so he should still fit into the same category. She concluded that he must've been incredibly hungry, but hadn't been willing to say so. Poor guy…must've been the kind of person who was afraid to show a weak side.

Finally, Ed had cleared the plate, and handed it back to Sylvia, remembering his manners in time to thank her. He then relaxed his stance a bit so that his head slid down to resting on the edge of the bathtub. Ed's hair hung in a very messy braid over the edge. Sylvia chuckled and set down the plate on the floor, and came over to kneel by the edge of the tub where Ed's head was resting. "How long has it been since you fixed your hair?" she said, taking his braid in her hands.

Ed sighed, and rolled his head over to the side, indicating that he really didn't care at the moment. "A while. Ever since I found out I-" he suddenly realized that he had been about to spill everything, and clamped his mouth shut. Sylvia nodded, though Ed's head was turned to her, so he didn't see. She had suspected as much, since he'd been acting so strangely. He'd only recently discovered what he was.

"Is it alright if I fix your hair for you?" she asked.

Ed shrugged, causing himself to sink about an inch deeper into the bathtub. "Knock yourself out." Sylvia smiled and grabbed her brush, and began undoing the rubber band that was holding the braid in place. It was knotted up pretty badly, so this was no easy task, but after a minute or two, it finally came free. She then loosened the braid itself up, so that it was hanging freely, and started gently running the brush through his hair.

"So was it a spell that caused you to turn into a merman?" Edward stiffened and sat up all of a sudden, pulling the brush out of Sylvia's hand, and causing it to fall into the water.

Edward turned and sent Sylvia a glare of his own. "Whatever gave you that idea? MAGIC DOESN'T EXIST!" His heart rate began to accelerate. Did she know anything? If so, how did she know? He hadn't told her anything…had he? He couldn't remember having said anything, unless it had been in his sleep.

Sylvia rolled her eyes and retrieved her brush from the bathtub. She was about to start the process of brushing his hair again, when she decided against it, since he was still glaring at her, and would obviously not cooperate with her at this moment, so she just threw the brush down on the floor, and propped her arms up on the edge of the tub to look at Ed. "I was only asking because, with the way you're acting, it's obvious that you haven't been this way very long. I was just wondering if someone had turned you into a merman or something."

Edward turned away from her and stared at some distant corner of the ceiling for about five seconds, and then turned back to her and said, "It's none of your business." He was about to go back under the water, anything to escape the questions of the inquiring girl, but Sylvia had been too quick to get to her feet, and she had grabbed him by his hair. Now he was stuck in place, unless he wanted to get his hair pulled out by its roots.

"It is TOO by business, since I'm TRYING to take care of you! If I hadn't have come along when I did, you would have surely died of dehydration and that concussion that you took on as a result of falling over a waterfall. I only want to help you. Now," she paused for emphasis once again, as she reached and grabbed something with her free hand. She raised it up to show the object to Edward, a pair of scissors. "Speak up, or lose your hair."

Edward narrowed his eyes, and looked at her. Now she was just playing dirty. This girl still kind of reminded him of Winry, which was still just as scary, since she didn't look anything like her. Was he sure it WASN'T Winry in disguise? Yeah, that must be it. It was Winry in disguise. Of course, she had a better build than Winry, and was a bit smaller, so he wasn't sure how she would've even pulled such a stunt off. Oh wait, he wasn't supposed to think that. If Winry ever found out…nah, she'd never find out what he was thinking about. There was nothing to worry about.

Edward sighed. He could never win against Winry…even if it wasn't really Winry. "Fine, you win. What about me do you want to know?"

Sylvia finally loosened her grip on Edward's hair, and a big smile grew across her face. "That's more like it." She took her seat on the washtub like she had the day before, and folded her hands in her lap. She looked up at the boy still occupying her bathtub, and asked, "So, Edward, when did this happen?"

Edward rolled his eyes and sighed. He didn't want to talk, he didn't want to talk, he didn't want to…darn! Why could he never win? "It was on my sixteenth birthday…I just suddenly transformed, without warning, and I've been trying to get to the ocean since then." He bit his lip. He knew he had said too much. He shouldn't have even said that much, yet he did. Now he was dead, he was sure. He was so dead. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable whateverness that was going to fall upon him to happen.

Sylvia picked up her brush and began brushing Edward's hair again. "That makes sense, actually. I was wondering if it was something like that." She paused for a second, and Ed felt her toying with his hair for some reason, which he couldn't quite figure out, but he brushed it off and just let her continue. "I was thinking that it must've happened recently to you, since you seemed to not understand certain concepts that one of your kind normally would have…So…you were raised as a human, right?"

Ed coughed. That had been a rather awkward way of wording the question, since he still thought of himself as human for the most part, but he couldn't disagree with it, so he nodded. Sylvia cleared her throat and continued brushing his hair. "That makes sense too…I guess that I must be right in that you had some sort of…spell…cast on you to make you human, so now it's wearing off."

Ed half chuckled, and bounced his shoulders a tiny bit in accompaniment. "I'd say that it already HAS worn off, not that it IS wearing off…though I still don't think it was a spell."

Sylvia just shook her head and ignored that last comment. She was starting to get used to the boy's ways about him by now, and it didn't faze her to hear him constantly deny the existence of magic, though merpeople were most certainly magical beings. He was an unusual one; that was for sure. "I'm just saying," she said, giving a tug to his hair to drive the message in, "That whatever caused you to take human form isn't likely going to wear off completely, all at once. You probably will still transform once in awhile if it was that recently that it started to wear off."

Ed grunted and rolled over, not wanting to talk to the girl anymore. In the process of rolling over, he pulled his hair out of Sylvia's hand. She put her hands on her hips and stared for a moment, and then brought up the brush and whacked Ed over the head with it, causing him to sit up straight in a hurry. She'd been careful to avoid the damaged part of his head, but she didn't go light on the undamaged part. Boy, she sure smacked of Winry. Scary, scary, scary.

"What was that for?" Ed gingerly rubbed the newest addition to his collection of sore spots, bruises, and other injuries that he seemed to be accumulating. Sylvia sat back on her heels, and crossed her arms over her chest, holding the brush in her right hand in a very menacing manner.

"Edward, I'm trying to help you, but you're making it very difficult!" She stopped and relaxed her shoulders a bit, and allowed her eyes to be drawn to the floor, which by now, was gathering quite a bit of water from all the splashing that occurred as a result of Ed's fussiness about everything in sight. She then dropped her hands to her knees and began to clench her fists. "Please, it's hard enough to brush hair that won't stay still while you try to brush it without you further hindering my progress."

Ed didn't quite know how to respond to that. What the heck did she mean, hair that wouldn't stay still? He turned and looked at her…she suddenly looked a lot smaller, a lot weaker than she had before. It was surprising that he hadn't noticed that. She had always seemed so tough and lively…like Winry. Of course, Winry had her own weak moments too. He frowned and closed his eyes. He couldn't continue causing her so much trouble without his conscience bothering him for it. If only he could get out of here, but he was out of his element.

"Look, I'm…" his voice trailed off. He was genuinely sorry for all the trouble he had caused, but apologizing wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. It put one in a weak position, and being in that position was painful. Regardless, he took a deep break and opened up his eyes to see Sylvia looking at him, waiting for him to finish what he had begun to say. He open his mouth again to speak, when he felt something brushing against the side of his face. He shook his head to make the feeling go away, and tried to talk again, only to have the feeling return. "What the-"

He turned to look and see what was bothering him, and almost turned white from the sight. His hair was moving on its own.

Sorry if I ended that too abruptly. Feel free to tell me what you think and give me suggestions. Either way, leave me some reviews, and I'll try to update as soon as I can, okay? Take care, and have a nice day!