"Well? Who the hell are ya, don't just stand there, say something!"

While the Fullmetal Alchemist berated me for my silence I experienced my first ever anime sweat-drop. I hadn't expected there to actually be a feeling to it, but it was like a warm sponge sliding down the right side of my face, slowly, and then disappearing. Shaking off the strange new feeling and trying not to freak out a little I opened my mouth to answer him when Hughes cut in.

"This is Stephanie; she's going to be staying here until she finds a more permanent residence. There's a washroom up that hall and second room on the right. After dinner I'll look to see if we have anything for you to wear for the night, because I'm assuming you don't have anything of the sort in that bag."

My ears pricked up, I had thought this was a one night deal, for until the military had my report about tonight and then was done with me. I should've known better, Hughes was too kind a man for that, unless he was thinking with his military hindbrain and just wanted to keep an eye on an unknown variable. I nodded to his question, and with a quick word of thanks I made my way to the bathroom he pointed out, using my elbow to carefully push the door open, trying to avoid getting blood everywhere. I once again used my elbow, this time to nudge on the water, and I set about the tedious task of trying to make sure I didn't look like a serial killer anymore for when I would meet with other important characters. My first impression I made on Edward Elric was shot, nothing to do about it. I had shown up on the doorstep in the middle of the night, covered in blood, and most likely looking like utter shit.

After my hands were considerably cleaner thanks to a strange yet refreshing smelling purple soap I found by the sink, I inspected my clothes. My t-shirt was probably a loss, which saddened me a bit, but I would probably end up keeping it anyway as a memoir of my past life. At the sight of my coat in the mirror all the blood fled my face. It was a gift from Taylor. Made to look like the tenth doctor's tan coat, but with more inside pockets and a femenine cut. My brother who I would more than likely never see again. Doctor Who. I was going to miss the first full episode featuring Capaldi's Doctor. I wouldn't ever find out what happens to Clara, or Gallifrey. Nor would I ever see what new interior the TARDIS picked. I barely resisted slamming my forehead into the mirror in front of me, feeling an anime gloom settle on my shoulders, dark and thick. Even that was too comical for my current mood. With a surge of anger I ripped the last bits of the t-shirt to shreds. I was left staring at the pieces and feeling hollow. After a few seconds I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and shoved all of my current malcontent behind a door in my mind, for me to deal with later.

By the time I had finished washing the blood spots from the stain/water (and apparently blood) resistant sleeves of my coat there were only two small scraps of shirt left, the rest in an even worse state than before from being used as rags. One of those pieces was the back collar area, where Aunt Sam had written my name in her hasty scrawl. That piece was carefully folded and put away. I checked my hair in the mirror one last time, running my fingers through the scraggly mess and sighed, wishing I'd thought to shove more elastic ponytail holders than usual into my bag before I left the house.

I walked back to the front room, noticing the absence of Hughes, and how Edward watched me suspiciously from his place leaned against the wall in the corner of the room. I hung my coat on a free hook by the door, pondering what I would have done if the coat had been ruined by all of the blood. Curl up and die was the most likely answer I could come up with, though dramatics aside I would probably dye the entire thing a solid color to hide the stain and allow me to keep it.

My attention was once again snapped back to the real world when I heard clanking and another familiar voice filled the room,

"Brother, what's wrong? Oh, hello there miss."

I turned, filled with excitement at meeting sweet little Alphonse Elric, and then remembered he wasn't so little at this point in time. I looked straight up at the hulking suit of armor, and wondered how no one noticed that his eyes glowed red, and were obviously not originating from a solid human being within the suit. From the corner of my eye I noticed Edward looking at me wearily, as if waiting for me to faint at the sight of his little brother. I resisted an eye roll at the state alchemist and stuck out my hand for Alphonse to shake. As if anyone could be afraid of someone so sweet.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you, I'm Stephanie Arcaro."

He tentatively took my hand as if terrified that he might somehow break me, which was actually completely possible given that he probably had superhuman strength.

"I'm Alphonse Elric, and the rude one over there is my big brother Edward. I've never heard a name like Arcaro before, is it from another country?"

My eyes darted up to his face, well, helmet, in surprise. He caught on to that way quick, even for the super genius he was said to be. Maybe I should have come up with a false name or something. I tossed that idea out; no way would I have been able to think of an Amestrian name that didn't already belong to someone.

"Yeah, it is from another country."

I watched him warily for any sign of suspicion towards me but he immediately brightened up, interested in our conversation at a whole new level. I should have known there wouldn't be suspicion that easily from this kid. He was a kind soul. The pun nearly made me choke on my own spit as I thought this, and I fought to keep a straight face in front of him, I wasn't supposed to know he was only a soul bonded to armor, but even if he didn't know what I was thinking, laughing hysterically for no reason would probably freak the poor kid out.

Alphonse radiated excitement,

"So, since your name is from a different country, does that mean that you are too?"

Edward butt in at this point, "Stop Al, she probably doesn't want to play 20 questions."

After filing away the fact that they had '20 questions' here, I spoke up, honestly just not liking how Alphonse sagged at the scolding.

"I really don't mind, it gives me something to do, and a way for us to get to know one another."

Edward rolled his eyes and flopped down on the couch, studiously ignoring the two of us. I turned back to Al with an eye roll of my own,

"To answer your question, Alphonse, Yes, I am from a different country."

He squirmed, and said distractedly,

"Just Al is fine."

And was about to launch into yet another question when a woman I recognized as Gracia Hughes popped her head in from what I assumed to be the kitchen,

"I've heated up some dinner for you guys, if you'd like to eat now."

Edward jumped up, and bolted to the kitchen, leaving me and Alphonse laughing in his wake. I turned to the younger brother,

"How do you put up with him?"

Al shrugged,

"Practice, maybe?"

I snorted, and shook my head, making my own way to the kitchen. When I stepped inside I saw a buffet line sort of thing had been set up along the counter with bowls filled with different foods, and Edward loading up on most of it. I suppressed another eye roll, and was about to head back to the living room, appetite lost at the sight of Edward stuffing turkey down his gullet, when I bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there."

I apologized to the Lt. Colonel, trying to step around him to get out of the room. He stopped me short, grabbing me by the shoulders and steering me towards the food,

"Oh, no Stephanie, we aren't having this. You already mentioned you were trying to get over that illness; I'm not having you risk your health in my house. Get some food, you need it, you're nothing but skin and bones!"

I rolled my eyes, but smiled slightly anyway, it was a bit difficult to be mad at someone trying so hard just to help me out. I grabbed a plate and piled a bit of food on. Grabbing the glass of water he handed me I headed to the room I had seen Edward enter to find that he and Gracia were already seated. Gracia wasn't eating, only nursing a cup of coffee and I guessed that she was making small talk. Both Hughes and I entered and found a place to sit, him digging in the moment his bottom hit the chair. He paused only to introduce me to his 'darling wife' and to apologize that Elicia 'her most infamous cuteness' was already in bed for the night.

I smiled slightly at Gracia,

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Hughes; I'm Stephanie Arcaro."

I turned behind me to see Alphonse enter the room, sitting in the seat beside me, obviously lacking food. I heard the first few syllables of a quiet question begin from him but he was unintentionally cut off.

"Call me Gracia, dear. Is it true what Maes said? That you're getting over some illness?"

She sounded worried, her inner mother shining through. I nodded,

"Yeah, I was ill recently. I lost more than 50 pounds, and I was by no means heavy beforehand. But I'm better now; I just have to be smart, and not push myself too much."

Oversharing, much? I mentally berated myself, but faced with her genuine concern my tongue ran without the order running to it. She didn't look very reassured, but before she could ask any more questions Edward piped in,

"What did you have that would have caused that?"

He seemed a bit interested in the conversation, actually pausing between bites to squeeze the question out.

I could see everyone was waiting for an answer, but I couldn't tell them what was actually wrong; saying 'Weeeell, I went crazy and my brain basically felt like it was eating itself' did NOT qualify as a good answer. I glanced down at my food so they wouldn't see the strange eye movement that sometimes happened while I was in somewhere else entirely, lost in my own mind.

While I'm in there whatever I visualize myself doing, my eyes will follow as they would if I was actually doing it, so if in my head I was reading, my eyes would scroll left to right, as if down a page, even if there was nothing in front of me. It freaked my brother out when it happened the first time. Since then I had learned to hide my eyes when I wanted to inconspicuously look things up, like now. Hopefully it was something that could be trained out of me.

I retreated to my Mind, mental me taking off running from the last room I had been in and tumbling down the stairs to the first floor library. Unlike the 3rd floor library, which was full of pictures and memorabilia, this library was filled with solid information, such as medical conditions that would lead to sudden and extreme weight loss. It was modeled a bit after the Tenth Doctor's control room, which thrilled me every time I went there. I went straight for what I was looking for, going directly to the pronunciation-friendly part of the passage, and brought the info to the front of my mind where I could relay it back to the people waiting in the real world.

When I zoned back into what was actually happening around me, only a few seconds had passed. I breathed in preparing to speak when Alphonse cut me off,

"No, Ed, that's not right! You shouldn't demand answers from her like that! If she feels like telling us, she'll tell us! Something so serious must have been traumatic for her; she probably doesn't want to be reminded of it!"

Everyone in the room guiltily looked away, reluctantly agreeing with him. I inwardly smiled, setting the medical book on the end table by the door to the library for easier access next time this situation happened. The way everyone behaved as if this were an anime, I was starting to suspect that it was the culture here in this alternate dimension, rather than being sucked into an actual 'anime' which was just illustration layered with sound. In hindsight, it was kind of obvious, though that didn't explain the other 'anime' things, honestly. I emerged back into the world confident that I could handle everything. Then Alphonse asked another question, attempting to politely steer the conversation in a different direction.

"So, what country are you from then?"

I froze.

Shit.

There was no possible way to lie my way out of this one. I knew no countries in this dimension besides Amestris and I had already admitted I wasn't from there. I was so very screwed.

Happy fourth, Airedhiella, have another on me.

More to follow in the week, ya'll.

~TimeLordOfPie