I really tried to keep this on to a decent length! And don't be mad at me if the chapter sucks, if it does, I'll re-write it! So try not to flame too much if you feel it necessary.

(This one's for you ShadowCloud62, I hope you like it)

Chapter 11 - An Evil Streak
Al peeked up on the top shelf of the dusty bookcase; hours of searching and still they had found nothing. Since Ed and Al worked for the military, they were the only ones allowed in the downstairs library vault to look for the contract to Aria's arranged marriage. Al sighed. "It's like looking for a needle in a hay stack...it's impossible." Al once more went to the front of the files in the cabinette, Ed was on the other side of the isle looking under the same name 'Crowley', but only from a different district.

The files were seperated by country, then district and finally by name; there were so many wills and business contracts it was exceptionally difficult to locate the one they needed. "Any luck Ed?" He peeked over the top of the file cabnit only to see his brother's antenna sticking up, his older brother was quite short, he never really took the time to notice it before. Al stood an inch over the file cabnits and his brother was three inches shorter.

Quickly getting back on track he walked around to the other side and saw Ed reading through a few of the folders. "No." He said while biting his lip. "Not a damn thing." He flipped through a few more. "I think he took it not wanting anyone to find it...he must be hiding something."

Al sighed and droped to the floor in a sitting position, he took a deep breath and sneezed. "All this dust is draving me crazy...we need to find it soon." He sniffeled a little. "Huh?" He looked up to Ed who was going through some different files, there seemed to be a paper hanging out the bottom. "What's this?" He tugged the paper out and blew off the dust. He sneezed once again. He looked over the paper as he read it from top to bottom.

Ed kneeled down in front of his brother. "It wasn't filed properly...I wonder why."

Al smiled and then sneezed again. "Here." He passed the paper to his brother. "It's just what we're looking for." He sounded a little stuffed up. "Now let's get the hell out of here." Al rose and stood right next to Ed, he stood a full four inches over him.

"Due to the massive loophole in the marriage agreement contract between Aria Heket and I, Felix Crowly, it has been hidden in the lower branch of the Central library. I have cleverly hidden it in my book that I feel the closest to 'Secrets of the Golden Dawn Cypher Manuscripts'" Aria read aloud. She skimmed the rest. "A business letter, this was all you found? ...that's strange." She smiled. "Well, we better get to the library, we don't have much time. I closes in a couple hours." She rose and looked at Al and Ed who were standing side by side, a wide smile on both their faces.

"We should all head down, it's too nice to be stuck here all day." Ed smiled. "I'll go see if Winry want's to come. They nodded and Ed hurried off up the stairs. He saw that Winry's door was open and she was laying down on her bed, she had decided to take a nap. Ed opened the door slowly as he admired Winry from the doorway. She had on a pair of cut-off jean shorts and her little black tube top, she looked beautiful. Smiling, he went over and shook her shoulder lightly.

"Winry...hey." She stirred and rolled on to her back. Stretching she looked up to see Ed looking down on her.

"Ed!" She sat up quickly, a blush graced her face. "How long were you there?" She seemed flustered.

Edward blushed a little himself. "I just came in." He hooked his thumb behind him and pointed to the door. "We're going to the library, why not come with us?"

She nodded. "Sure, just let me get dressed." Ed smiled and left the room, closing the door behind him. Winry seemed relieved, she was having a dream about him, and for a brief moment, she thought it was real. Collecting her wits she got dressed and headed downstairs.

"Anything yet?" Aria leaned around the corner to see Al up on a stool trying to reach one of the high up books.

He shook his head. "Nope...I'm sure it'll turn up." They had arrived at the library an hour and a half before closing time and they searched the card catalogue. Apparently the book was infact there, however the card containing the information was gone. They knew this because of the ever reliable Sheska, they called her and she said that she had already read the book; apparently the book was an occult writing of some sort. The details were sketchy, but they knew it was there, no one checked it out. So unless someone stole it, it was sure to be there.

"When we were looking for the contract in the first place it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. This is more like looking for a needle in a stack of needles." Al hopped off the stool. He sat down and lowered his head. "This is frustrating."

Aria resteda reasuring hand on his shoulder. "Why are you so troubled, I'm the one who should be bummed out." She looked kind of sad. Al looked up at her, she looked like she was going to cry.

He stood up and placed a hand on each shoulder. "You're right, but try not to be sad; we'll keep looking until we find it. Even if we have to come back tomorrow." Aria smiled. "Don't worry, it'll all work out, cheer up." He smiled and he looked at his hands, they were still on her shoulders. With a bit of a blush he removed them and rubbed the side of his arm. "I need to check the other side."

Aria nodded. "Ok, I'll go check the next shelf." With that said she took off behind the shelf that Al was looking on. He could see her through the mess of books and dust. The room was rather dark, there were no windows, just a few fire exits and that was all. The lower section of the library was one mainly for refrence, that's where Sheska said that she remembered filing it in the first place. Since the letter said it would be here as well, they guessed that the information was correct.

Al caught himself looking at Aria every so often, just a short glance through the books, not like he was staring at her, but once in a whle he would glance up to see if she was still there. Ed and Winry had started at the other side of the room, so they would meet in the middle.

The hour they had left flew by and finally the library attendant had come down to fetch them. Ed used his military position into scaring her into letting thme stay after hours, it wasn't surprising that Ed had such a silver tongue when it came to these kinds of situations.

Al heaved a heavy sigh, the library had now been closed for a full hour before he decided to sit down, the dust was starting to bother him. He walked over to where Aria was, she was going through some of the books on the lower shelf, she was kneeling on her dress, he could see on the side that she had brushed against something dusty. "Nothing."

She nodded. "Nothing..." She stood up and brushed off her dress. I wonder if it ws just a concidence that the card was missing, or did someone take it." Al shrugged. "Yeah, there's no way of telling..." She leaned against the bookshelf and sighed. "This is going to take forever, there has to be at least a hundred tousand books down here, we'll be at this for weeks...what time is it?"

Al backed out of the row of books. "I have no idea...Hey Ed!" He yelled across the room to his brother.

"What?" He voice was really off int the distance.

"What time is it?" There was a moment of silence.

"Eleven!" He yelled back.

"Thanks." Al approached Aria and stood in front of her. "It's eleven...it is getting kind of late huh?" He folded his arms and looked down at the floor. "Looks like we will have to come back tomorrow...I was really hoping we could find it tonight too."

Aria smiled. "Really?"

Al blushed. "Uh, yeah! I mean uh...mm..." Al was at a loss for words, he really liked her, a lot, but he couldn't do anything, she had that damn ring.

Aria reached out to him and placed her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Thank you."

Al was stunned, but not so stunned as to not put his arms around her as well. He pressed his cheek into her hair and snuggled her tightly. They stood there, holding eachother, for a solid minute before Al released his grip and looked her straight in the face. His cheeks were red hot and he was shaking a little, at least his hands were. He leaned in closer to her face.

"Al..." She sid quietly. "We really shouldn't..." She took her hands up to meet his face. Al averted his gaze and backed off.

"Your right...I'm sorry." Al seemed a little hurt.

Aria smiled a little. "I didn't say stop..." She clasped the front of her dress in her hands.

Al's smiled returned. "No one has to know..." He approached her again, but this time Aria wrapped her arms around his kneck as he embraced her waist, they kissed once again after almost a year. The time on the beach was a memorable one, Al didn't mind telling Ed about that, but this one had to be a secret, just between the two of them. Aria leaned her back against the bookshelf as Al kissed her lips softly. Just then, a book came down and cracked her in the head, they enevitbly broke their kiss.

"I guess god is watching what I do." She looked down at the book. "Hey, look."

Al backed off and looked at the book as well, he reached down and picked the book up. Sure enough, it ws the one that they had been searching for. Pulling out a papre thathad an offical seal on it his grin widened. "This is it!" They smiled and hugged, the irony of it all. "I wonder why only one book fell, and this one at that." No sooner had Al finished his snetence had the rest of the shelf gave way and fallen, covering the two of them with dusty old books. Al stood there next to Aria, she smiled at him and as if on instinct he hugged her tightly.

"We should go tell Ed and Winry they can stop looking. Come on." He took her by the hand and set off to find Ed and Winry.

"I think I hear them coming." Ed looked up from what he was doing. "Ed, get up."

Ed lifted his body of of hers and helped her to her feet. Straightening out his hair he smiled. "Oh well, I think I heard AL say that he found it, good thing, we weren't looking very hard were we?" He smiled as he watched Winry straighten out her skirt.

"Not really, but no big deal huh? I do feel bad for not looking harder; at least they found it though." She tied her loose hair back into the pony tail that she originally came down with.

"Yeah, let's go." The two of them headed out of the row of books to meet up with Al and Aria.

Yet another chapter...I hope you're not mad at me for doing that...I never seen a sucessful ocXmain-character pairing...so I hope it's ok.

Remember, if it sucks too much, I'll redo it. Read and Review, tell me what you think, I REALLY need feedback with this one! I need to know if I'm doing something wrong.

Chapter 12 - The group reads over the contract, and to their surprise, the letter they found was right!

See you all next time! Thank you all for helping me improve!