~.~

-THE OUTSIDER-

by Iland Girl

'for those in search of home.'

A Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfiction

I don't own anybody but Erin... for now...

Chapter Seven: Anchor

"Little by little, we learn to let go of our loss, and learn to hold on to love."

― Unknown

Edward woke with a bit of a start.

A dream he couldn't remember made him shake as he bolted upright.

Two figures at the far end of the room were his greeting as he focused in. The remnants of Al's armour packed into a box, and Erin crouched in front of him. She wasn't wearing his coat anymore, someone had given her loose fitted pants and a brown overcoat that was definitely too big for her.

Both looked to him as he sat up, Erin stood to take a few steps towards him.

"You're awake! That's good. The doctor said you weren't too banged up, just fatigued." She said while coming up next to his bed. He couldn't help but stare at her. She had a bandage over where he knew her scar to be, her hair pulled back into a ponytail to keep it out of the way, but that just showed how extensive the scar was, falling down the side of there neck and beyond the neckline of her shirt. He found it hard not to stare, the damage may have been superficial but it did look very painful.

She didn't look overly beat up, in fact save for her old wound she didn't look to have anything more than a few bruises. He was thankful for that, remembering the awful crunch when that bastard had punched her scar. The sound would haunt him for some time to come unfortunately. He remembered when he could see the blood pouring from the wound.

Yet she was worried about him first.

"Yeah…." Ed began, trying his best to refocus himself, before looking back to Alphonse. "You're both okay? Relatively speaking of course."

"Yeah, well, I'll be happy when I can get up and move again." Al said, making Ed realize that he and his brother were both on full display. He looked back to Erin, expecting a flurry of questions to be coming out of her mouth. Why was Al hollow? Why did he have prosthetic limbs? What did they do? Why did they do it? Did it hurt? How was the recovery? Was this why Al never ate in front of them? So many questions, people had questions all the time and he was getting sick of answering them. Even Al being a well kept secret still had several people like the Colonel who asked a thousand questions before settling in. So he waited with certainty that she would have many as well.

She said nothing about it.

"The doctor gave me some ointment. Otherwise I'm sore but nothing too damaging." Erin said as though there wasn't an empty talking suit of armour in the room. He realized she was actively not saying anything, because she knew there were questions they had for her as well. Surely she knew what it was like, exposing a wound like that. He couldn't help but glance at the nape of her neck, where some of her hair wasn't growing back in a jagged line.

She definitely knew.

She acted unfazed, though Edward noticed how her hands immediately reached for her bandaged eye. He remembered how she stood up after getting punched then.

"People have been knocking me down for a while now…."

What did this girl live through? She had definitely faced hardships, and briefly he wondered if they were as traumatic as his or Al's. It wasn't a contest by any means, but the level of physical and psychological damage this girl had was extensive, to say the least.

Yet she still stood up for him when he had given in.

The door opened, in walked Hughes. Everyone looked as he and Lieutenant Hawkeye entered.

"Well hello there! Glad to see everyone is awake! Edward you really shouldn't worry everyone, passing out like that." Hughes teased, coming to stand on the opposite side of his bed. He actually didn't remember much of how he got here. He remembered being on the side street, Erin crying after scolding him, he remembered the MP's helping him up and into a car. After that was pretty fuzzy. He looked to Al, then Erin, realizing both had been waiting for him to wake up. Ed felt guilty, but like hell was he going to show it.

"Jeez, don't blame a guy for being exhausted after a fight like that." He snapped, immediately regretting it when Erin looked away. She looked upset, but he couldn't tell exactly why.

"Right, you only had to fight him because of me. I'm sorry." She said, looking down at her feet again. She always did that when she'd made too much eye contact with someone. She looked meek, nothing like the girl that stood in front of him in the alley way.

Though, the look of absolution on her face when she grabbed Scar's arm…

"What are you talking about? I was bound to run into him anyway, don't kid yourself into thinking it was your fault. Far as I'm concerned, you saved me." Edward said, but he couldn't look at her while he said that. His goal was to make her feel better, but his words ran away with him.

"Well," Maes began before looking to Erin. "If you two are done flirting, I think we've held out for long enough. It's about time you go and meet the Colonel."

"Flirting?!" Edward sputtered, looking back at Hughes. He was promptly ignored though, as Erin focused on the parent. She nodded once, then looked to Alphonse.

"Al, I hope you can get back together again in one piece. You still owe me an alchemy lesson." She said, walking over to him and touching his shoulder gently. Al nodded, not being able to raise either arm at this point.

"Of course, I'll be in perfect shape faster than brother!" He joked, knowing full well he would have to wait until Edward had his arm back. Erin stood up, looked across the room at him, and then gave a quick nod. He wasn't sure exactly what she was trying to convey, but he nodded back and watched her make her way over to Hawkeye. The older woman escorted her from the room, and only once the door was shut did Maes continue to taunt him.

"Y'know, that girl didn't want to leave you and Al alone until she saw you were awake. She's been waiting for a while. Honestly Ed, you don't keep a lady waiting."

Again he remembered that look of utter determination that was on her face, the look of fear dancing in her eyes, when she latched onto Scar's arm.

Maes noticed he wasn't paying attention anymore and continued on.

"So, have you thought of how you're going to explain this to her? Sounds like she's lived a life where things like Alchemy and Automail are foreign. I have no idea how you're going to explain Alphonse here." Maes said, looking to the younger brother. Alphonse looked up.

"I don't think we have to, actually," Al began, garnering both their interest. "She just asked if I was okay, and that if I wanted to tell her I could, but didn't have to."

Al looked down at his own body, wondering briefly what it would be like to feel that pain that Erin must be in with her scar.

"I think that there are things Erin isn't ready to tell us either, and she respects us enough to know that some things just shouldn't be talked about. She was really grateful we came to find her, and thanked me several times. I get the feeling people haven't done that for her before." Alphonse continued, leaving Edward with more questions about the girl.

He wondered, briefly, what would've happened, had Erin not stopped Scar at that moment.

Perhaps some things really were better left unsaid.

The woman I had come to know as Lieutenant Hawkeye was quiet as she marched down the hall. I followed at a much quieter pace behind the beautiful woman. She didn't say anything to me, so I didn't feel the need to talk back. It was quiet, but I found no need to fill it at the time with useless conversation. Wasn't like I knew what to ask her. 'How's the weather?' sounded a bit too on the nose.

"The car will be out front. We have to cross through the courtyard to get there." Hawkeye said suddenly. I was stinted to a halt as she opened a door and waited. It took a moment for me to realize she was waiting for me to go through. I blurted out an apology before scooting out and into the rain. Thankfully Maes had come by with other clothing for me to wear since Edward's coat was cut and torn in several places. While I hadn't been exactly thrilled with the clothing options- having to hike up your pants so high just so they didn't drag wasn't fun- it was for sure better than feeling like a wet cat.

Despite the condition of the coat, I insisted they hold onto them in case Edward wanted the messy ball of cloth. Hopefully he wasn't too angry at me for getting it all ripped up. I would have to make it up to him somehow.

We got into car quietly. Hawkeye sat next to me while someone else drove. I stared at the back of the driver's head for what felt like an hour. My fingers fidgeted as I tried to stay focused on the task at hand and not go off in my head.

"You don't need to be nervous," Hawkeye made me jump. I looked over to her and saw she was resting with her back straight and her shoulders set squarely. A gentle gaze came from her eyes, though it was hard to look at her when she openly gazed at me like that.

It was enough having the doctors bandage my scar, asking millions of questions and having curiosities as to how it was healing. Asking me what sort of burn was it? Acid? Fire? Like they didn't already know. The bandage covering my eye only made it more obvious that there was a malformation, a blemish, one that I couldn't just will away with proper medications and creams.

We arrived at Eastern Command. I followed Hawkeye in, down the halls, and to a familiar set of doors. She paused, turning to look at me at the same time I looked at the floor.

"The Colonel should be in there alone." She paused, then her feet both faced me. "Do you want someone else to come in?"

"Please," I blurted out before it really dawned on me what I was saying. My face turned red and I bowed it away from view. "I mean- I mean yeah that'd be cool, thanks…?"

"Of course, then let's go." Hawkeye said in a gentler tone. I looked up to see her opening the door, holding it for me to go in first. A lump formed in my throat, so I swallowed hard on reflex before stepping in.

I had no idea what the Colonel would be like. Was he mean? Surely not if Hawkeye was his lieutenant. Why did Edward hate the man so much? He was a superior, shouldn't he have a little bit of respect for the man? I was expecting to find something big and nasty on the other side. A man with old war scars smoking a pipe? Maybe.

What I was expecting was not some thirty-ish year old man to be casually slung back in his chair like he was lounging at home. Hawkeye stepped forward and saluted.

"Colonel Mustang, this is Erin, Edward Elric's friend that he wanted you to meet." Hawkeye announced firmly. I blinked, taken aback by the name she just said.

Mustang…..

"So, you finally show up. Tag along number two." His deep voice announced. I stared at him then, trying to figure out why the picture didn't look right. Was it the name or the fact that it reminded me of…

"Well Full Metal must be thrilled with you. You're so quiet he probably rants on for hours." The Colonel tried again to jeer, but I was finally starting to get the puzzle pieces to properly align. No, I must be wrong, there's no way he's-

"You-" I cut myself off, tilting my head slightly to regard the man. He sat properly in his chair, watching me with hooded eyes.

"I'm… What? You do realize this is no way to speak to an officer? Perhaps the runt is rubbing off on you already." The Colonel warned. I shook my head quickly.

"No, sorry sir. I-well you- it's just….." Gosh how was I supposed to ask this?

"Spit it out kid." The Colonel looked to be getting bored, which only frustrated me further until it finally did spill out.

"Is your name…. Roy Mustang…. By chance?" I asked, my shoulders tense to prepare for some sort of insult. The man simply smirked.

"Ah, so my reputation precedes me. Tell me, what else has Full Metal told you about me?" He asked, but my brain was glitching as I tried to put this information together in my head.

"It wasn't him." I said, but the back of my brain kept telling me that this wasn't right. There was no way…..

I had ask.

"Did you…. Have you ever met a man named…. Anatol? Anatol Lallier?"

All at once, the domineering playfulness washed from the man's face as he regarded me in an entirely different light. He stared blatantly at me, as though expecting some sort of running gag that I wasn't privy to.

"How would you know him?" Mustang asked after a few moments of silence. I swallowed, and my brain just couldn't make sense of how Dad could possibly-

The transmutation circle.

The complex books on alchemy-

God dammit this couldn't be possible. My Dad was just- my Dad! He was a good father who loved his wife and kids and sometimes was gone for long periods of time. There was no way, no way my father would-

"He-" I felt choked up. "He was my father."

"Dad?" I called from the study. My father walked in, the crappy mug I had made for him as a kid held carefully as he sipped his coffee. He walked slow, having stolen Mom's slippers again to wander the house. There was something about the man in baby blue bunny slippers that always made me giggle.

"Who is this?" I asked while holding up a photo of a much younger looking Anatol Lallier. There was another man next to him. Someone thinner and less built but just as tall. His eyes were dark, like his hair, but there was a fire about them that made me think there was more life in him than you'd initially expect. The photo itself was torn and had definitely seen better days. The background looked to be some sort of town, but the mage was blurry. All I could make out was the outline of something that looked to be an old styled car and a paved road.

Dad trudged forward, carefully taking the photo from my hands. His brow quirked as he looked down at me.

"How did you…" His voice trailed off, and I did my best to pretend I wasn't also throwing myself under the bus that I had lock picked his safe. Christmas time was boring, I had to find entertainment somehow. So I whistled and twiddled my fingers to look extra cute as my Dad mumbled about getting better locks. My mind cottoned on to it and immediately imagined the amount of effort a fancy lock might take.

Dad sighed, sipped his coffee, then showed me the photo again.

"That man right there? He's the toughest little brat I know. There's a few others I could talk about, but this kid? His name is Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist." Dad explained, letting me take the picture again carefully as he continued to sip. He leaned over the desk to see his safe had indeed been cracked without breaking it.

"Say, I've got something else you could spend time doing. How about I teach you about decoding?"

Roy Mustang continued to stare even after I explained that I was Anatol's daughter, that he had two kids, and that I really had come from a…. Far away place, but didn't know how I got here.

"All I know, is I was in the storage room. Dad never talked about alchemy, much less showed us anything to do with Amestris. I was going through his stuff when I activated one of the transmutation circles. And I just…. I just woke up in some field." I explained, staring at the desk that laid between us.

"I can understand if you don't believe me. Hell, I don't really believe me, but all I want…." I took a breath. "I just want to go home."

Mustang regarded me, his fingers laced in front of him while he resting his chin.

"You said 'was'. Tell me, what happened to Anatol Lallier." The Flame Alchemist asked in a low tone.

My chest hurt.

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. My fists clenched, I felt cold and sweaty and somehow too hot all at the same time. My eyes screwed shut, I felt a grimace coming as the single word spewed out.

"Dead."

"How?" Roy demanded without skipping a beat. I felt dizzy, and felt the room change behind my lids as it was no longer the brightly lit office but dark storage room.

Holes in the walls, a single chair, that stupid light that swayed back and forth back and forth back and forth-

That laughter.

The smell-

A hand clasped over my shoulder, I sucked in a breath at the contact and was immediately transported back to the current moment. It was Hawkeye, and even when I looked over to her she kept her hand on my shoulder.

"Colonel, excuse me for speaking out of turn, but I think that's enough." She said. I looked to the floor, embarrassed that I had crumbled so much that even a bystander could see I was an absolute wreck. I chanced a glance at Roy, but upon meeting his gaze I quickly dropped it again.

"Right…" he trailed off, then seemed to be busying himself with his work. "You've had a long day, perhaps it would be best for you to rest. Dismissed."

Hawkeye took me back to the hospital. I don't know why, and I didn't ask. For some reason she seemed to just know that I needed to go back there.

"There are other places for you to stay, if you would like." She said it once, and when I didn't answer she didn't push for more.

I entered the Elric's room quickly and shut the door quietly. Edward was asleep when I entered.

As soon as I was sure Hawkeye had walked away from the door I felt my guard slip. My breath became a bit heavier, a pressure building up in my eyes. I bit my lip and walked over to a chair. I sat in it and felt my eyes well up. I bit my coat sleeve in a feeble attempt not to shed any tears, to get ahold of myself and just stop crying.

I was so tired of crying.

I was so tired of being weak and feeble and pathetic. The only thing I really wanted was to just get over it. It happened, move on, but I- how the Hell do you get over it? Was there some secret ingredient? What was I supposed to do? My thoughts just made more tears come though, and the more I thought the harder it got to breathe and stay quiet until the damn broke and there was nothing to stop the river.

"Erin?"

I jumped.

It was Alphonse who spoke. I had forgotten that the boy inhabited the broken suit of armour that had been resting in a crate this whole time. I looked over to him, and in the dark room it was a bit difficult to make out that he was looking at me, but it came as a feeling rather than a knowing.

"S-Sorry." I said quietly, wiping away my tears firmly, I wiped so hard that I bumped my bandage and hurt my scar again. It hurt so badly to start with, but the pain was so constant I had become numb to it.

"Why… Why are you crying? Did the Colonel say something?" Alphonse asked in the most innocent of tones. I reminded myself then that this was a fourteen year old boy. He was the same age as Bray. Just a kid, like me, young but definitely not naive.

I wasn't stupid, I knew there was no way a fourteen year old was inside a suit of armour, with a living flesh relative, without having something seriously traumatic happening in their life. He had clearly suffered, and this fact made me feel disgusted at myself for crying and I hated myself ten times more for not being able to stop and show some damn respect to these boys that had clearly been through so much.

"Sorry, no, I- he didn't- I'm not-" I wanted to curse whoever thought emotions should make you cry. If anything one should cry when it's safe to do so, when nobody was around and you didn't need to talk.

Maybe that was why. Why I was crying right now, because I felt safe?

Whatever the reason, I was willing myself to stop with all my might.

"Hey! It's okay! Just breathe! Take deep breaths with me, okay?" Alphonse guided me, and I had to fight the urge to point out that he didn't have lungs. Instead I listened to him and took those deep breaths, finding the lapse in time soothing as I also gently rocked myself with my knees to my chest. It took several minutes, but I did try to settle myself down.

Finally, the tears stops, the choking gut-wrenching stab in my chest eased, and all that was left was the stabbing pain of my scar. The usual.

"There, better?" Alphonse asked. I nodded slowly. "Alright, did you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head, resting my head on my knees while trying to look at Alphonse in the darkness. There was no use in lying, I really wanted to know why he was in that armour. But I was definitely not ready to tell them about my scar, if that panic attack was anything to go by.

Alphonse hummed a bit in thought, I just stared.

"Well, you could tell me which side of the Colonel's face to start with."

I flinched, looking over to where Edward Elric was sitting up in bed. He looked pretty pissed, had I woken him with my little episode?

"Sorry, I-I didn't mean to wake you." I said, bowing my head back to my knees.

"Like I said, am I starting with a left or right hook?" Edward asked, his eyes fixed on me as he completely disregarded my apology. It was getting to be hard to ignore the obvious counters I could give, and finally I let one slip.

"Well…. It might be hard for you to start on the right…." I said, pointedly looking at the lack of arm. Edward looked surprised, immediately I back tracked. "Ah, I didn't mean-"

He laughed, I stopped.

"There it is. I knew you had some sass in you." He said, and I felt frozen to the spot as I watched him.

There was something about the way the moonlight cascaded across his face, a warmth that I could feel across the room. Both boys gave this warmth, and it was hard not to be affected by it.

Slowly, I circled my head back to my knees, but this time the smallest of smiles came to my lips.

"Since I'm up, we might as well prepare for tomorrow. Where did my clothes run off to?" Edward began to get up, trying to stretch without hurting himself too much. I froze, remembering the torn coat he had borrowed to me before. My gaze travelled to the box where all of the boy's stuff was tossed into. I got up and ventured over to it, then hesitantly pulled out the horribly torn coat and stepped closer to Edward.

He was shorter than me, which helped with the intimidation factor on my part, but definitely made it harder not to look him in the eye.

"I-uhhh…. It got ripped pretty badly." I confessed, showing him the monstrosity of a coat. Edward paused in his stretching and took the coat with his one good hand. The longer he just stared at it the more I turned into an absolute mess. "I can try stitching it for you, or-or maybe buy you a new one-"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I can just transmute it back together again." Edward said while tossing the coat to drape on his shoulder. He smiled at me. "Thanks for keeping it. I got a bit worried someone tossed it."

"No, I insisted we keep it….. Just in case." I said while looking to my feet.

"Thanks! I know if I left things up to the Colonel he would've tossed it all out and told me to get something less flashy." Edward laughed. I snorted, thinking of the audacious man who sat behind that giant desk. That sounded pretty on point with what I had gathered.

I watched Edward and Alphonse chat, bickering like siblings should here and there. All the while, it was very clear there was an affection between them. It reminded me of my own brother, of how we used to taunt each other and tease.

Watching these two, knowing full well they had faced horrific things, and seeing how closely they cared for each other stirred something inside of me.

For a moment, I wondered if that could someday be me.

"Are you sure you want to go?" Edward glanced at Hawkeye, the corners of his mouth dropping slightly. "I could come with you if you'd like."

The Lieutenant had arrived not long ago with food and the request that I come and fetch my dog from Colonel Mustang's office. Fuery, one of the officers there, had taken one look at him and stated he would clean him right up. I wasn't sure what he meant, but Thor went along with him happily, seeming to think I was in good hands.

I turned to Edward, who had used alchemy to fix his clothing again, but was still confined to the hospital for now.

"No, that's alright. I need to… do this alone." I said, looking down at his missing arm instead of his eyes. They were still really hard to look at, and the fierce emotion in them didn't help any.

"Alright, we'll wait here until you come back. Then it's off to Resembool." Edward said, Alphonse chirping in agreement. I looked between the two, recalling last night them talking about their home, and a girl named Winry would was Edward mechanic. Briefly, I thought of an old woman with battle scars, smoking a cigar and telling Edward he was going to die if he broke her creation one more time.

"Shall we go then?" Hawkeye asked. I broke from my train of thought to look at her, looked back at the boys briefly, before muttering a goodbye as I followed after her and out the door.

The journey to Eastern Command was very much the same, and I was almost grateful when Hawkeye never tried to talk to me. She did look at me several times, but nothing was ever said, and I was grateful for it.

This time, when she escorted me into the room, Maes Hughes was there as well. He stood up from slouching against the desk and practically beamed at me.

"Ah! There you are! We were just talking about you!" Maes said as he walked over to me. I stood there, surprised when he gave a quick bow. When he stood up again there was a warm look in his eyes. A gentle look similar to the one he gave me in the mess hall.

"You should know, your father's well loved by a lot of us here. So you have nothing to fear from us. It's a pleasure to properly meet his daughter." Maes went on, then paused. "You must be the oldest, considering you look to be a teenager."

"I- yes I'm sixteen. And my brother is fourteen." I looked over to Roy Mustang and noted he was staring me down from across the room. Maes gently put a hand on my shoulder, but I still flinched while looking to Maes.
"Don't worry about him, he's got a resting face that scares all the ladies. Which is why he's still single and I'm not!"

Maes was enthusiastic, to say the least, but it was sort of nice to see that sort of energy from an adult. He reminded me a lot of my aunt, before our world began to collapse when Mom died. It was nice to have that aura come from someone else.

I stared at Roy Mustang for a moment, not sure how I was supposed to finish my discussion from yesterday without treading into dangerous territory again. Roy, however, seemed to be much more subdued than last time. In the back of my head I was imagining Maes giving him a talk about manners, and it oddly seemed to fit with the way they interacted.

"I apologize for my attitude yesterday," Roy began, surprising me. "As Maes said, your father was a good man, and a dear friend. Hearing of his demise, it…."

I bowed my head.

"I…. I don't doubt he was a great man. My father… he was…." Amazing. "But there is just no way…."

"Why would you say that, kid?" Maes encouraged, but I popped my head up and remembered why it would've been ridiculous.

People didn't jump worlds. It just didn't happen, so why was I in some weird alternate dimension then? And the circle…. It brought me here.

"It's just….. it's not possible….. I…. It's obvious I'm not from here, I mean I've never even heard of Amestris. And alchemy isn't a thing where I'm from." I explained, not sure how I was going to explain my way around this.

"Where are you from? You've got a heavy accent." Roy said, making me remember that I didn't always speak from the back of my mouth like I should when speaking German and instead spoke from the front as I would with English.

"Canada…. This language…. Amestrian? It wasn't my first language, but my parents both spoke it so I suppose I am fluent." I supplied, looking between the three adults in the room. Hawkeye had taken her position beside Roy now that Maes was acting as my crutch and guide.

"I see, and you said it was a transmutation circle that brought you here?" I nodded to Roy's question. "Can you redraw it for me?"

"Sorry, no….. I don't… I never really looked at it." I explained, embarrassed I couldn't do such a simple task. Roy thought for a moment.

"One more question, are you aware you're being followed?"

At first my answer was a definite no, but then I remembered the man on the train following me. I relayed exactly what happened on the train to him, and the three all exchanged looks at that.

"Well! Looks like you're going to stay here with us for a while!" Maes said with a grin. I hesitated again.

"But…. Edward and Alphonse-"

"Are going back to Resembool temporarily. And while I'm certain the boys will be safe with Major Armstrong joining them it'll be difficult for him to protect all three of you. I'm not sending more officers on wild goose chases either." Roy put a full stop to my argument, and for the first time since coming here I felt like throwing a tantrum.

The boys…. They were…..

Maes' hand on my shoulder tightened slightly. I looked up to his smile.

"Don't worry, they'll be back. Pretty sure they'll both want you to be safe regardless." He encouraged. I took a deep breath, reminding myself that this was to be expected considering my father was their friend. They were just looking out for me, which was….. nice actually. I hadn't really experienced that sort of thing in a while…..

Loud barking could be heard from the other side of the door.

"Ah, and here's the dog!" Maes said as the smaller man named Fuery came barging in with the dog on the skinniest leash imaginable. Thor bounded right up to me and nearly tackled me down. I patted him and he whimpered once to me, which I soothed by petting him more.

"Hey boy, look at you, all clean." I said, looking at the silvery coat that had been properly groomed up. Fuery stepped closer, scratching the back of his head.

"We cleaned him up the best we could. Poor guy had so much matted fur we had to shave a good chunk of his undercoat off." The younger man explained. I looked over to him and gave a tiny smile.

"Thank you," I said, further petting the giant dog as he turned into quite the ham. "Look at you, all fixed up."

"Well, that's quite the lap dog." Roy commented, and I was beginning to think Maes had made Thor sound significantly smaller than he actually was, not to waist high wolf he seemed to be. I figured I was right when I saw the sheepish look on Maes' face.

"Eh, you get used to the size." Maes joked.

"He was really good until he caught her scent, then he went crazy dragging me back here." Fuery scratched the back of his head. I looked over to him, feeling a bit sheepish. He wasn't my dog but I considered him to be, and no owner was ever pleased when their dog was bad for someone else.

"I'm sorry, I've never put him on a leash before." I confessed. Fuery put his hands out to ease the apology.

"No, don't worry about it! He was excellent. He just really likes you is all. See? He's a perfect gentleman now. He even knows to use the bathroom outside."

I was glad to hear all of that, pleased to see he had been a good boy for everyone. He was getting extra belly rubs for that.

"Not to break up the reunion, but you should get going Lallier, Full Metal will be leaving shortly." Roy added.

I stopped scrubbing, knowing full well I had been holding off on saying goodbye. Fat chance of Roy changing his mind, considering he was ready to plough me down for answers yesterday.

"Okay."

"So you're staying here? You okay with that? Because we can just grab you right now and-"

"Edward Elric I hope you aren't insinuating that you mean to kidnap this lovely young lady!" Armstrong said in a baritone voice that I swear shook the ground we stood on. We both flinched at that.

The train station was noisy, and while I was completely trembling from the amount of activity, I was insistent on seeing the boys plus Armstrong to the train.

I said goodbye to Alphonse first, as he had to be shipping in the cargo to stop from people staring at him. Alphonse then gave me a list of books that I needed to read on alchemy. Of course he never had this list written so I was furiously trying to remember how to write in German while also telling him I had no idea how to spell half of those words with just English writing.

"Finish those before we get back!" Alphonse had said, and while it might've been a throw away statement, it brought a sense of confidence that they did intend to return. I had nodded firmly, grateful for the distraction of books to pass the time.

"I wasn't insinuating anything!" Edward yelled back at the other Major. "Besides, the Colonel can't force her to stay here, she's done nothing wrong."

"It would be dangerous for her to go with you Ed, we've talked about this." Maes said from beside Armstrong. "There's no good reason to take her to Resembool. If someone is following then you're just putting your mechanic in danger."

It was a valid point, one that kept me from even indulging in the idea of sneaking onto the train as it left. Edward looked caught too, so I did my best to comfort.

"I'm safe here," I said gently, garnering the boy's attention. He looked over to me, so I looked to the clasp on his jacket instead. "I won't be in the way, and you can get better. Both of you."

It was quiet between the four of us, before Edward snorted.

"What are you talking about? You've never been in the way."

On reflex I looked up at him, then down again. My cheeks felt warm, but I didn't say anything for a bit.

"The train is boarding now, we best get going." Armstrong said. Edward mumbled something along the lines of an agreement.

"Well, see you guys." Edward said faintly, then he turned to follow Armstrong as they walked off.

C'mon…. Get your sorry ass moving…!

"W-Wait! Edward!" I called while taking a step forward. Edward stopped, half turning to me. My fists clenched, and I took a breath before looking up and directly to his face.

There was some mild surprise in those golden eyes, probably at the intense look of determination I had on my face. My skin was crawling from the prolonged eye contact, but I refused to look away. I had to look at him when I said this.

"Thank you," I said. "It's because of you and Alphonse that I-"

I felt a bit choked up, and finally I looked down again to his jacket clasp.

"Hey," I looked up again and was thrown off by that damn smile. "It's because of you that I'm still alive. So I'm going to call us even, alright?"

I couldn't help it, the smallest of snorts came from me, and then a smile broke out across my lips. Edward's smile subsided into another look of surprise, and then it dawned on me that I was smiling. Not a tiny smile that you had to see in the correct light to even notice, but a true smile. The first smile I could remember properly having since the accident.

Edward's cheeks tinted, but I was still too caught in those amazing golden eyes to properly register this.

"Okay then." I said, seeming to snap Edward out of his trance as he spun away from me.

"Right! That means next time we meet you better not need to be saved! Or else you'll owe me one!" Edward shouted as he and Armstrong retreated to the train. I watched them both get on, before turning to Maes.

I felt caught when he gave a knowing smile and briefly wondered what he was thinking. Maes just chuckled before motioning for me to follow him.

"C'mon kid, we've got to get you settled in."

Hi everyone!

Oh wow, sorry guys, I fell down the Naruto hole HARD and have been writing like a mad woman for a while. I then realized this hadn't been updated in nearly a month and freaked before running back here. I had 3,000 words written out but decided you guys deserved a proper monster of a chapter, so here she is!

I will admit, it is mentally hard to write Erin as she currently is, because I have to go back to that dark place to really understand her, and I don't think my writing is good enough to really portray such a character to her fullest yet.

Anyway, so this differs from the original a bit! Before I had several filler chapters of Erin going to Resembool, but logically speaking there isn't any good reason for that, so here's gunna be a few chapters of Erin learning to interact with others here. Get ready of a lot of Maes! You can bet that over bearing father is gunna parent the shit out of poor little Erin. And yeah, he plays a much bigger role in this version of the story than the original.

I think the main difference between the original and this version, is it just has more. The original had heavier hints of the 2003 anime, while this one has a mix.

A HUGE THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS! It seriously means a lot. Please check your inboxes, as I will pm you replies to your reviews!

Also, side note, I was listening to Anchor by Skillet for this, the re-imagined version, it fit so well with that ending I think.

You're not alone, my little Outsiders.

Please stay safe and healthy.

Iland Girl