Ughhh this took forever cuz I typed it with my wrist brace on (my wrist is hurting again). plus something awful happened to me during my MRI. idk why they made me get one, but they suck. like im not even claustrophobic and i was about to start hyperventilating. those things are awful. =[ a while back i was running in the rain (cuz i love to do that, dont ask why) and I did almost a somersault in the air, landed sort of sideways on my wrist. its still hurting like a month later, and we get these xrays done (they suck) and i fractured my wrist, but we had to get an mri done and i dont no why because nobodys telling me anything!!! XD lol.

With Ed...

"Shouldn't we knock, Brother?" Al asked sheepishly.

"She's not going to care," Ed rolled his eyes, opening the door just in time to see Travis coming down the stairs, blood running from his lip. All three of them froze for a few seconds, comprehending, before Ed, taking in Travis's rustled appearance and lip, ran forward and shoved the taller boy onto his back against the stairs.

"Augh!"

"Where is she?"

"She's in her room. Farthest to the right." He braced himself to be punched, but Ed ran up the stairs instead. Al was blocking the door, but he wasn't going to leave.

When Ed entered the room, he took in the dresser with piles of fairy tale books on it, papers sprawled on the floor as if she'd tried to grab one of the books and throw it at him but the book had fallen apart, the full-length mirror with a spider-web crack on it, as if someone had been thrown against it. One of the shelves was knocked down, another halfway off its hinges. The walls were painted a million different shades of blue, from sky to cobalt to indigo. In contrast to the dark tones on the wall across from the bed, someone had painted in orange: "Nothing about me is original. I am the combined effort of every person I've ever known." His stomach hit the floor when he saw her curled in a ball on the ground.

Kneeling beside her, he brushed his fingers lightly over her tattoo. "Kairi?"

At the sound of his voice, her eyes opened slowly, her unsteady breathing becoming more even. "Ed?" Her voice was dry and it caught in her throat. He helped her to a standing position. There was a cut on her left cheek that was bleeding down to her chin, and several bruises on her exposed arms and legs. There were four scratches on the outside of her left thigh, as if he'd tried to grab her leg and his nails had left bloody impressions on her skin. Most of the bruises and scrapes were on her left side.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

She nodded, stumbled to the bed, and sat down. She put her hand on her knees and stared at them. Her left knee was covered in blood, and one of her ribs was aching.

"Are you sure? You're bleeding everywhere."

"I'm fine, Ed, I'm fine." She was lying. "Just throw him out. If he's still here, I want him to go." Ed left the room, and she could hear him scrabbling downstairs with Travis. ("I won't leave! I'm going to clean her up! Let me help her!") How pathetic. =D I've decided I don't like him. =] Ed finally seemed to get him out the door, because she heard it slam. She tucked her hair behind her ear, glanced in the broken mirror, and saw her hair was sticking up in several places. Flattening it out so it looked somewhat normal, she clutched her tattoo.

Serenity.

All that time, that was what it had meant. She couldn't believe she hadn't remembered it before.

Ed returned a moment later with a warm, damp washcloth, and he sat next to her. Handing her the washcloth, he said, "Does it hurt?"

"I'm fine," she scrabbled at the bandage on her left arm from when she'd fallen on top of the broken glass. It had dried out and it was itching, not to mention it was already halfway off thanks to Travis dragging her across the floor by her left forearm. Once it was loose, she tossed it to the floor. The cut on her arm was halfway healed. Using the washcloth, she started to wash the blood away from her cheek.

"Kairi?"

She turned to him, her hazel eyes lit with too many emotions to begin sorting them all out. "Ed?"

"What happened to the rest of the house?"

She laughed lightly and started to wipe off the marks on the outside of her thigh. She'd gotten blood on the bed. Her laughter apparently came as a shock to Ed. "Travis's brother shows up. Gun in my face. Takes my dad's military watch. Knocks a bunch of crap over, tells me to eat my vegetables, and leaves." She moved to her bloody knee, which had gotten cut up when he'd been dragging her across the floor. They didn't speak for a moment. She dropped the washcloth onto the floor and looked at her tattoo. She didn't want to look at anything else, didn't want to think about anything else. She'd wanted to know so badly, and now she knew.

"Do you know what it means?" Ed asked, his golden eyes on the back of her head, noticing some blood that was drying in the center of her white blond hair. She must have hit her head somewhere. The main reason he was asking was because she seemed to be thinking about it a lot, and her eyes were fixed onto it. He closed his real hand gently around her bruised right wrist, which was swelling, so he didn't squeeze it.

"Yes, I did," the slight smile on her face faded. "I know what 'serenity' means."

They were quiet, and all they heard for a moment was Al shuffling downstairs. He wants to know. He wants to know as badly as I did. But he won't make me tell. She turned to him, chewing the inside of her right cheek. She would have on the left side, but she'd already bitten it, hence the metallic tang of blood inside her mouth.

His amber eyes were locked on her's, and she reluctantly whispered, "Serenity was my mother's name."

After that, they didn't say anything for a few minutes, and Ed picked up the washcloth so he could gently clean the wound on the back of her head. She bit her lower lip and sighed. He made everything seem better.

When he'd set the washcloth down, he wrapped an arm around her lightly, and she rested her head on his chest. They sat like that for a few moments without a word, until she sat up, kissed him quickly, and announced, "I'm going to take a shower."

He nodded and watched her go. It was odd for her to take a shower instead of a bath, but he figured she'd rather wash off the remainder of the blood than sit in it. When he left the room, he walked by the closed bathroom door and glanced in what he guessed to be her parents' room. It was, of course, destroyed. Outside the room, there was a light switch. Flicking it on, he discovered that the only light that hadn't burned out was connected to it. It was about four feet away from the edge of the banister, and it had something inside of it, but he figured it was just a dead moth and turned the light back off.

Al was waiting downstairs, and, if it's possible for a suit of armor to do this, he would've grimaced. "She okay?"

"Yeah. The room took most of the damage."

"Where's she at?"

"Taking a shower."

They were quiet for a moment, and Ed sat down on the couch, his eyes on the Transmutation Circle in the center of the living room. He tried to forget what he'd just seen; Kairi, her eyeliner running, bleeding, bruised, in pain. He hated it. He hated to see her that way. That Travis bastard had better be far from here because I think I'm about to run after him.

"Serenity was her mother's name," Ed said, and Al didn't reply.

Later That Day...

Kairi came out of the shower looking much better. Her eyeliner was back in place and her hair was shorter. She'd found a pair of scissors in the bathroom and cut it from her elbows to three inches below her shoulders, and took a bit more off of her bangs so that at their lowest they were just below her eyebrow.

She sat on the couch next to Ed, a half smile on her face. "Are you leaving soon?"

"Yes," he replied.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Al joked, and he walked up the stairs so they could be alone.

"I want you to come with me," he said. "I don't want to leave you alone, especially if he comes back. I could just take you to Teacher's."

She nodded. "I don't want to be here alone." Then she paused. "I want to sell it. I'll get a house somewhere else."

"Where do you think you should move to?"

"Risembool," she teased.

"Not funny," he replied. "Then you and Winry would probably attack me with a wrench every time I come back."

Sting. What was with this Winry girl anyhow? Al had said she was Ed's girlfriend, but the way Ed reacted, she was pretty sure he was a friend he really liked. Feeling slightly threatened, she rubbed her tattoo. I used to do that for luck. It felt incredibly good to be able to remember. All the gaps had been filled in, everything was remembered. Things her mother and father used to say were implanted in her head. Sal had been incredibly devoted to her because of the death of his own daughter. She wasn't too poor at alchemy, but she couldn't get a lot of it right. She was, overall, completely average. Average in looks, average in skills. She was small like her mother, she got her hate of food from her mother, she got her bitterness and ease at lying from her father.

She almost laughed. It was her mother's fault she was completely flat-chested.

Ed caught that funny look in her eyes, and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"Just... funny stuff my mom used to say."

"Oh," Ed rested his chin in his good hand. She couldn't help but smile. He is just too cute.

She was caught off-gaurd when he stood up. "Where are you going?"

"Well, Al probably thinks we're going to perform unspeakable acts on your couch, so I'm going to convince him otherwise." He left, and she laughed.

She finally knew what "serenity" had meant all this time, she finally remembered everything (except what had caused the memory loss itself), but it was something she remembered that was bothering her. That feeling of unease she'd always felt when they spoke of her unborn brother. His grave was in the corner of the yard. She could feel in her throat, that feeling that had always been there when she thought about it. She'd always known his death was deeper than her mother was saying, but she'd never asked.

Unspeakable acts on the couch. XD omg lol. Thanks for reading! make sure you check the photobucket for new pictures!! and REVIEW!!!