I don't own FMA

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A woman observing the bustling activity of Central from the rooftops quickly pulled back away from the detection of passers-by below her. She would have recognized those two anywhere. His voice rising up to her had been what originally caught her ears. He was still as loud as ever, but his voice wasn't the crackling voice of a maturing teenager anymore, it was deeper and steady. His voice carried up to her again.

"Winry, watch where you're going," he growled.

"I'm not the one who stopped for no reason," a female voice snapped back.

This gained her interest, and she was about to peer back over the edge of the roof when the familiar voice came again, softer this time, "I thought I saw something up there."

"Yeah, the sky, clouds, probably just a bird you idiot," the girl teased.

"C'mon Brother, let's just go to HQ and then check into the hotel for the night," a gentler voice joined into the conversation.

When nothing more was said the woman quickly looked back down to the streets, the red coat and armor was hard to lose in the crowd. With all the stealth she possessed she followed the trio, curious about the girl with them.

Ed was constantly looking up at the rooftops for another sign of the mask he had thought he'd seen, but now he doubted his eyes. It could have been a cat or a bird for all he knew. It was only his tired, overactive imagination at work. That was the reason he didn't respond to Roy's comment on his height, and why he wasn't going to walk around Central with Al and Winry to make sure she didn't spend all of his money on something she would throw at him. No, after eating he'd gone straight back to the room he and Alphonse would share. He would have collapsed on the bed, but someone was already there, someone he had seen before, someone who had been watching him from the rooftops.

"Hello Edward Elric," the female in a black suit purred.

"What are you doing here?" he snapped, distancing himself by sitting on the bed across the room.

"Oh, you didn't want to see me again?" she pouted.

"Shouldn't you go back to your sinking city and save it?" he asked, looking away from her to the lamp on the bedside table.

"It's practically underwater now, there's nothing else I can do for it," she explained.

"I never thought you'd be one to give up."

"I haven't given up, I just changed locations. I'll get people interested in my town. You'll see, soon enough people will be talking about it, and it will be rebuilt to it's former glory. Someone will find the solution to our problem."

"Putting faith in others isn't exactly the best way to accomplish your goals," he reminded her.

"It's worked so far. Not even you could resist the temptation to stop me. It's my faith in the masses enjoying a good mystery that kept the Aquroya thriving till the end. Don't try to refute it, you know as well as I that there are some things you can put stock in. Like that lovely friend of yours. If she were to show up right now and open that door she would not be very happy with you, would she?"

"Don't bring Winry into this," Ed hissed.

"But it's true isn't it? She doesn't even know about me, does she? The look on your face says it all. Oh, Edward, don't get grumpy with me. I'm not trying to use my feminine wiles against you this time. I just dropped by to say hi. To tell you that you weren't delusional. It was me you saw on the rooftops. Well, I'll leave you to your thoughts now," she said getting off the bed. She ruffled his hair as she passed by him to get to the window. She wasn't the type to use the door if she didn't want to.

"Don't cause trouble here, Psiren. I won't be the same as I was back in Aquroya," he called to her.

"I don't go around calling you Fullmetal, you can call me Clara," she replied as she disappeared out the window.

"I'd rather not," he said, knowing full well that she hadn't heard him.

It didn't take long before the door to his room was flung open with Al and Winry rushing in.

"Who was that?" Winry asked, running over to the still dazed Ed to make sure he was okay.

"Brother, was that Psiren?" Al asked, sitting on the bed the woman had been lying on minutes before. "We saw someone leaving the window from the street."

Ed was half tempted to laugh. She was right, there were some people he could rely on. "Yeah, Aquroya is underwater now," he told his brother.

"What are you talking about?" Winry asked. Ed and Al shared a brief glance between each other before Ed started to tell her about their adventure in the city of water. Al didn't interrupt or correct him when he left out little details, but listened contently as Winry heard one part of their journey.

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A.N.-Well, this is the start of my EdWin collection. I usually don't write anime verse, but a poll got me thinking about Ed and Psiren, and I couldn't resist putting the two in a room together. The theme is temptation, but I wasn't able to really make it the center of this piece. I hope you've enjoyed it.