It was dark in Central by the time we reached a crowd of people. Both of us were covered in sweat and my jeans were soaked in a blood water mixture from kneeling in the puddles surrounding Kyle while I was bandaging him up as best as possible, which had me mentally cringing and worrying about anime bloodborne diseases. I was extremely lucky that he was a rather short man, because I was a bit on the short side and indisputably underweight, with no muscle mass whatsoever. To be honest we were mostly operating on his power and using me as a living crutch.

We were dangerously close to collapse when we finally reached the crowd of people. My vision was blurring and I was seeing dark spots, flashes of purple and black. It could be because of that headache upon arrival, the strain of helping Kyle walk, or hell, this dimension could be rejecting me for all I knew. I heard what must have been one of Kyle's friends call out to us, but I couldn't comprehend the words through the pounding in my head. Someone I assumed was a medic took him off my hands, and I lost track of him. I doubted I would see him again anytime soon. Which, seeing as I'd lost an entire dimension to save his sorry ass, I probably wouldn't even want to see him.

I was hunched over, with my hands on my knees attempting to catch my breath when I finally realized that someone was talking to me. I glanced up, through a curtain of hair and barely managed to keep calm. Looking at me with concern was one Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes. I took one last deep breath, ignored the direction my life was suddenly taking, and asked,

"I'm sorry, what was that again?"

He laughed a little and gave me a small smile,

"I was asking what your name was, Miss."

I nodded, still trying to breathe, "Ah; makes sense I suppose. My name's Stephanie Arcaro. And you are?"

Hughes grinned, "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes. That was quite something you did for Private Moriston back there."

I looked at him funny for a second before realization hit, Kyle's last name hadn't come up in our ridiculous Q&A session. I shrugged,

"No problem, couldn't leave him there."

Hughes shook his head, "That's the thing, you could've. You aren't military, it wasn't any of your business, but you stopped to help. That takes kindness."

I squirmed under his gaze, uncomfortable with the assessment, and suddenly worrying for what kind of dimension I was in if this was what he thought. A dark part of my psyche told me I should have left him. I ignored it.

"Well, not really, it didn't really occur to me that I could just keep walking. It was kind of a given, guys hurt ya help him…" Well, it didn't occur to me until after it was much too late.

There was a pause before he stuck his hand out to shake, smiling slightly, "It's a pleasure to meet someone like you Miss Arcaro."

I stared at his hand for a second before showing mine, covered in blood, and laughing slightly, "Heh, it's a pleasure to meet you too, but I wouldn't recommend human contact at the moment. You know all that 'first rule of first aid' shit. Treat all blood as if contaminated."

He nodded in agreement, "Right. We should get you cleaned up."

I shook my head vigorously, "No, no I'm fine, I'll just be on my way actually, since Private Moriston is now in more capable hands."

I turned to leave when he caught my shoulder, I looked at him and he asked, "Do you even have anywhere to stay? You don't exactly seem like you're from around here."

It hit me then, when he asked. I was alone. There was no going back. I wasn't going to see Taylor again, or taste whatever concoction Sam had invented for the night. I wasn't going to finish high school or go to college. I was stuck in a world I had very little practical information about. I had no paperwork, birth certificate or anyone who would vouch for my identity. I was technically an illegal immigrant and I had just waltzed up to the military. The military in what was essentially a dictatorship.

With herculean willpower I resisted the impulse to face palm, or break into tears. "No I don't have anywhere to stay."

He grinned suddenly, "Then you can stay with me and my wife for a while! You can see our daughter Elicia! I have a picture here, isn't she just adorable! In this one she has on her mommy's hat, isn't that just so cute!"

I stared dumbly at the man. When I had seen these outbursts on the screen I had laughed at the expressions of those on the receiving end and had doubted that any real person would ever just invite people they didn't know to be around their families, especially a family man of Hughes caliber. But here I was, experiencing it. Maybe it was an 'anime thing'?

I backed up suddenly, "No, no, that's fine, I'm sure that I can find a place to stay or something, there's no need for me to inconvenience you or anything."

"Nonsense!" Hughes grabbed my shoulders, and wheeled me around, pushing me through the crowd. "It's the least we can do for helping our man like that! Please, I insist."

I glanced around at everyone, half hoping that someone would rescue me, and the other part of me was hoping that I could actually get a place to stay for the night this easily, though I suspected this might serve as a way to keep an eye on me. It was the middle of the night and I had no money that would be acceptable currency in this country, nor could it be exchanged. It was worthless paper now, cotton fiber paper, but still.

Hughes continued to talk as he forced me forward. "I have some other guests staying at the moment, but I'm sure we can hash out who sleeps where whenever we get there. I'm sure that the three of you will get along well."

While I was aware that the Elric brothers were staying with Hughes it hadn't quite hit me that I was now too. Meaning I got to meet them. The inner fangirl in me nearly went into cardiac arrest. I managed to pull myself together enough to put on the act that I DIDN'T know absolutely everything that would happen to everyone for the next while.

"Who are they?"

"Who are who?" Hughes snapped out of his monologue in confusion.

"These 'guests' that you already have staying the night? You mentioned there were guests but didn't tell me their names or anything."

"Oh, it's the Fullmetal Alchemist and his younger brother Alphonse. They're around your age, maybe 14 and 15, they're really nice kids once you get to know them. How old are you anyway? I don't know anything about you and I'm taking you home with me."

I was finally saved by a deep voice resonating from behind us.

"Taking strays home again, Hughes? I thought you already had a few tucked away for now."

We both stopped and turned to face the person who spoke. I found myself face to face (rather face to chest, he's pretty damn tall) with Colonel Roy Mustang. A computer screen cannot do this man justice. If my inner fangirl nearly had a heart attack at the thought of Fullmetal then she let out a banshee scream and died at the voice and appearance of the Colonel. I gave her a swift mental kick to get her moving again before tune-ing back into the conversation.

Hughes was just laughing at his friends' statement,

"Oh, Roy, of course I still have them somewhere, do you think I would have let them stay anywhere else while they were still in town? And anyway this isn't just some random stray! This is the girl who rescued Private Moriston! I found out she has nowhere to stay so I was just doing the gentlemanly thing and offering her a bed for the night!"

He rolled his eyes, "Offering? From the looks of things you were abducting her-wait, did you say she rescued Moriston? What happened to him?"

All eyes were on me then. I froze for a second then summoned up every pathetic ounce of courage I had. "From what he told me he was a part of a group attempting to apprehend the Freezer Alchemist, and was hit by a stray 'ice bullet' of some sort, alchemy nonsense I can't comprehend, and got separated from his group. He stumbled around until he ended up in an alleyway. I was wandering around searching for a place to stay when I saw him. I stopped and patched him up and helped him to get here where they could care for him properly."

Through some of it I lied through my teeth, and didn't even bother trying to explain the whole 'alternate dimension you're from a TV show' thing because that wouldn't fly. When I was done with my mini monologue Mustang raised one eyebrow.

"Well then, that was noble of you."

It was obvious he could tell that I was barely suppressing the urge to roll my eyes, and was extremely amused by it, the jerk.

"It's what most anyone would have done in my place."

While I knew this wasn't true I replaced 'would' with 'should' within the boundaries of my mind, so that as I said it, it would ring true-ish at least. He could tell I wasn't quite convinced and decided to press the issue.

"No, really, not many people would bother to help a member of the military if there wasn't something in it for them."

This time I did roll my eyes. I couldn't help it, I might have been strangely mature even back when I actually was 14 years of age, as Hughes seemed to think I was, but I was almost positive that teenage attitude was not leaving my personality for years to come, if ever.

I avoided eye contact as I responded, "Military or not, he's a human being."

I looked over my shoulder to where the body of the rogue state alchemist was being processed. I dimly heard Mustang reply,

"True."

Hughes began to drag me away once more,

"I'll take her over to your temporary office in the morning so that she can add her statement to your mound of paperwork! For now we're both exhausted I'm sure, so I'll give you MY paperwork then too."

I heard a noise of disgust from somewhere behind me in response to Hughes' cheerful statement.

We wound our way through the streets of central, walking in silence for a while and I was finally relaxing, thinking that he had forgotten to ask his many questions about my identity. I wasn't confident in my ability to lie on the spot about where I was from, and why I was in Central. My hopes for getting away with not answering them earlier were shattered when he spoke up suddenly.

"So, Stephanie was it? How old did you say you were?"

I was tempted to answer that I hadn't said how old I was and then leaving it at that but Hughes was such a nice guy and he was giving me a place to stay… I'm almost positive he had already assumed I wasn't going to answer because when I did he jumped.

"17."

"Eh, what was that?"

"I said that I am 17 years old. In a few months I'll be 18."

"Really? But you're so tiny!"

I'm not sure if he expected me to blow up like Edward usually did, but I replied with a slight affirmative head bob. He continued on, "I mean, like super tiny! I can see your bones in many places, have you been eating properly?"

It registered that he was trying to imply that I was the standard runaway, with no place to live and who hadn't been eating for a while. In a way I had run away from home, but I was in poor health for quite a while now. Well, no point in lying about it.

"I was ill recently and haven't quite recovered."

"Oh? Better now though, right?"
I wondered if there was genuine concern for my health mixed in with the question of whether or not I was bringing some horrible contagious bug into the same house as his young daughter and unsuspecting wife. Pushing the thought aside I nodded,

"Yeah, my brother is-was, a doctor, he got me fixed up."

The conversation faded out, and I couldn't tell if Hughes was itching to ask about my past, or not. He seemed perfectly content to walk along in complete silence. I, however, was uncomfortable with allowing him time to stew about more questions to ask.

"So, you mentioned a daughter, Elicia, right?"

That immediately sent him into a monologue, complete with pictures about how cute and perfect his little girl was. He happily chatted away about her various adorable escapades, and I filed my mental copy of the photos into its own special album, putting it in the 3rd floor library, labeling it 'Elicia Hughes'. I made sure to make the cover pink (her favorite color apparently); even though I knew she would never see it. Details such as that organized my mind and kept order, they kept me sane.

I made comments occasionally, complimenting certain outfits or hairstyles that I saw, and Hughes was enjoying having an interactive audience for once. When we finally reached his house he hopped up the steps in excitement and flung the door open,

"Honey, I'm back! And I brought another guest!"

As I stepped into the house, dread filling me at finally meeting the infamous Edward Elric, I took a deep breath. Then I stepped inside, and was immediately met with the sight of the familiar alchemist. Gold eyes surveyed me critically, and I waited with bated breath for his first words to me.

When he finally opened his mouth, what came out was,

"Who the hell are you?"

Most of the rewrite is written already, so I apologize about the notifications you'll get thinking it's new content. Nope, just this mess.

~TimeLordOfPie