We found Lisa.

She was just playing with the red wine fountain. Putting her finger in and watching droplets drip back down onto the fountain. Her eyes, I couldn't read them. Does she hate me? Does she hate me and Al?

I can't say.

Ever since the first day I was forced to work with this girl, when we started having dinner together after working late in the night to fix those streets without alchemy. Up to our trip to Resembool and her call with her parents. I guess she stuck to me a little bit. But not enough for me to get worried about what she thinks.

She's just a schoolgirl. A plain, ordinary schoolgirl dragged into our lives. She can leave and ask for another way to learn her lesson or whatever. It's not gonna matter if our friendship ends here. Right? Right? Haha. Right.

"Al.." She finally speaks. We've been staring at her and she's been staring at us. I noticed her legs are bruised again. A large cut from who knows where spreads straight across her cheek. "Lisa…" Al. I can feel him tremble with his voice shaking. He's worried.

Tears suddenly fall down Lisa's cheek. She jumps up and punches Al's chest, causing her to scream in pain. "OW! OW! OW! OW! OWEE OWEE OWEE OWEE! OW!" She breathed in and out, crouching back down to kiss her knuckles.

I laughed aloud and she gave me a glare. I relaxed a bit with her glare. Feeling a bit better. "It's not funny! What you two kept from me!" She yelled.

I stop laughing. "Kept from you?"

"How could you not tell me!" She seemed really angry now. Stomping her foot and staring intently at Al and I.

"We didn't think you'd understand, Lisa. You're from a different world." Al explains briefly, looking up at the sky. "We just wanted to see our mother smile again. It was a mistake we made four years ago. We didn't know if you could handle it."

Lisa turns around quickly, quietly sobbing. It's funny really. I know she's noticed something was off with Al. The questions she started to ask back at Resembool. I knew she had a hunch. "You already knew before we told you." I tell her flatly.

Her shoulders fall, her head bowed down. "I wasn't sure. However…I don't care! Even if you looked like a large trash can I wouldn't care Al! Even if you're so small a girl like me could beat you in a height competition, I wouldn't care Ed! You're my friends! Friends don't judge!" She turns around to look at us and the tears stop falling.

Why does she always cry when it involves us?

"I don't understand why, but I don't need to. I care about you two. I care so much that I can accept things about you with no hesitation so please…no more secrets."

Lisa's face, her cheek was cut. A large deep cut. It probably stopped bleeding 30 minutes ago. Her hair was all over the place. Her fingers and arms and legs were covered with dust and bruises.

"You're injured…" was the only thing I could say. Lisa looked at me and raised her eyebrow. "I punched your chest, of course I'm injured."

I carried her out back to the train station. She fell asleep inside of me, barely making any noise. Brother's been looking up at the sky. Probably hiding the disappointment that the philosopher's stone was a fraud.

I couldn't think straight though. The way Lisa punched me earlier, it felt like she didn't do it because she hated me. She did it because I never told her the truth.

Every few hours, I call out her name. She responds mostly with "hmm?" and "Al?" but she barely spoke. She's probably dead tired.

"Lisa?" I call out. I could only hear her breathing this time. Slow and steady and sure. I can relax a little bit.

"She's something, isn't she?"

"What do you mean, brother?"

"She gets strangled by Scar, thrown to the ground, practically thrown forcefully upwards by a stranger, bruised and hit by collapsing buildings, stranded in the desert but she cries because we didn't tell her what happened to us."

It is strange. Isn't it? Lisa's always loud and suddenly speaking up. She barely cries and fights back when it comes to other people. However, when it's brother and I…she cries. A lot.

"I don't have a lot of friends." Her voice spoke up from inside me. I rip my chest open and she dangles her feet outside. "I have friends but I don't like them. I want to be with people who I can be normally me. I found that with you guys. Of course, It hurts me when you're hurt."

Ed scoffs at her. "You're such a softy, Feury." Lisa grunts and pulls my arm. "I don't want to see your SHORT brother's ugly face anymore Al! Please close your chest!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT!? YOU'RE SHORTER THAN I AM YOU PINT-SIZED CRYBABY!" Ed yelled. I hurriedly closed my chest causing and to yell through it. Lisa laughed loudly.

I feared the worse and got the best reaction from her.

Nothing can go wrong.

Right? Wrong…

Again.