Hey Everyone in Elric Land! It's me, R-Chu :D

(I recently fixed this chapter, changing a few things up, not too big of a change... I almost re-did the whole story!^_^)

So just as an FYI my comments are usually at the end of the chapter, but since this is the first one, I'll let you know up here :D

This is my new story, Truth's Tricks. I'm mostly making it up as I go, but I'm trying to update once or twice a week.

Also: this is branching off of Brotherhood from when Gluttony eats Ed, Ling, and Envy.

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA:Brotherhood, no matter how many times I take Arakawa to court!

Chapter 1

The Boy in the Red Coat

Edward Elric looked up at Ling Yao and Envy, who was about a hundred feet high. Envy laid down the last pieces of the Xerxes ruins in front of Ed. "These are the last ones I could find," Envy assured him.

"Are you sure that these are all of the pieces of the ruins?" Ling asked them.

"Yeah." Ed told them. "These are the ones from the mural in the temple ruins." Ed became silent and thought.

Ling noticed his thinking. "Hey, why are you so silent?"

Ed sighed, still in thought. "Well Ling, this array is used for human transmutation…" Ed crossed his hands and rested his chin on them.

"Huh?"

"Furthermore, using this array is used to give birth, or create, an 'ordinary human.'" Ed looked at the ruins with suns painted on them.

"Ordinary?" Ling asked.

Ed was still somewhat unsure, but he continued. "Then… It came to me. What if you remake a living human with human transmutation?" He took another breath, making out his thought again. Envy was thinking silently. "It's impossible to perform human transmutation on an unliving human. Basically, if you transmute something that doesn't exist, even if you pay a price, in the end it isn't allowed to take the correct shape of a person. But if it were a human that was alive….Maybe I could transmute myself."

Ling understood, the pieces finally clicking. "It's like remaking something that's already there… Like water into water or iron into iron…." Ling nodded t Ed's idea.

"And with this 'human transmutation' the door will likely open. Since you say Gluttony is the fake doors," Ed glanced at Envy, who nodded back at him. "Then if we pass through the real doors, we can come out!" Ed lifted his torch and looked back at the two boys. "I will open the doors, then you jump in."

"Well what if you mess up?" Envy asked Ed.

"A rebound," Ed said quietly. "A failed human transmutation will rebound everything to the user, which in this case, is me." Ling furrowed his brow before turning to Edward.

"I'm an amateur at alchemy, so I'll leave everything to you." Ling took a step back.

"Here, use this." Envy stuck out his tongue, which looked like a bunch of mangled bodies, and showed Ed what was on the back of his tongue. A small red stone. "This is what you wanted, right?" Ed took it. "You need this as a passage fee, now let's go to our former world." Ed looked sadly at the souls all over Envy. They kept crying out. Envy retracted his tongue.

"These are the people of Xerxes, aren't they Envy." Ed said with pity.

"Yes, but don't show them pity, they are no longer anything close to human. They are only good for energy now." Envy sneered at Ed as he began to reluctantly draw the transmutation circle that they now stood on.

"Ling, incase I don't make it out, can you tell everyone on the surface that they are planning to do something bad to this country?"

"You're crazy.. Amestrs isn't even my country! Like I should care what happens to it!" Ling said comically.

"Why you!" Ed said before Ling cut him off.

"Besides, there are people in this country who you care about, and need to see you, right? So no matter what you need to get out of here and tell them yourself." Ed looked at Ling with awe, nodding at him before looking at the wailing souls of Xerxes.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to use you," Ed apologized sadly, looking at them one last time. "Here we go!" Ed clapped his hands together, and activated the circle.

Ed remembered waking up for a few seconds two or three times. He was really tired, and all he could remember was a girl's voice and being cold. He was confused, but didn't have the strength to move. He was put in a few uncomfortable positions along the way as well. Then he peacefully slept after he was warm. He recognized the warmth as a bed. i'm home... He thought. He reached for more of the warmth, finally feeling at peace. He grabbed more warmth, and pulled it closer.

I sat in the car with my mother, Illiana Everhart. We smiled and were singing along quite loudly to some new pop music. My mother slowed down and took a left, into a large parking lot. We arrived at ROSS and turned off the car. I stepped out of the car and shut the door. We locked the car and walked in the store. The whole walk there I was re-gaining my hearing from all the loud music that was locked up in the small car. We headed fr the dresses section, and We both began pulling out lots of different dresses.

It was almost 5 years now. 5 years since my father died. He was killed in a plane crash. He was on a trip for business in New York, and when he was returning from the month long trip, the plane was caught up in a large amount of turbulence from a thunderstorm, and it crashed in the plains of Nebraska. Our family was torn at the loss, but we all overcame it together. This weekend we were going to visit his grave, and for this occasion mom suggested that we get a nice new dress for it.

Of course, this being our family,we didn't really wear black. We were a colorful family, and if we wore black to the grave, surely our father would be upset by it. Instead we wore colored dresses.

After we found a few dresses each, we made our way to the dressing rooms.

The nice old lady by the entrance handed us little things to hang on our door that stated how many dresses we had. The security was pretty uptight here. I had always wondered why people would steal. It was pointless. At least that was my opinion.

I tried on the blue one first. It was a type of corset on top, and it poofed out a little like a skirt at the bottom. It showed my figure nicely. It was a jean type of look. Not neon blue or anything.

"Trisha, how does it look?" I smiled at myself and fixed my hair. It was long, right below my breasts, and it was very straight. I had side bangs that outlined my always full looking lips and silver grey eyes.

"It looks great, mom!" I don't think I even need to try on any other dresses!" I yelled back to her. She was in the stal across from mine.

"Alright honey... On the count of three." I grinned.

"One.." I called.

"Two.." She called back.

On three I unlocked my door and we both stepped out, face to face. I gasped dramatically, showing that i was in love with her dress.

She returned the look.

We took a deep breath and looked around. The old lady and a few other people were just staring at us. We burst out laughing.

I think my dad would be happy that we would take his death in a good way. I'm glad that we didn't change our attitudes too much. I couldn't bear to see my family cry any more than we already had.

We nodded and agreed on the dresses we were just wearing. We purchased them, and walked out of he store. It smelled like rain.

We got home, and by then me and Illiana were tired and just wanted to eat. We unlocked the door, soon smelling the sweet smell of chinese food. I loved when Brother would bring home chinese on his way home from his part time job.

My dog, Austin, and English Springer, ran at us, and licked my hands as I tried to pet him.

"Damien we're home!" I called into the house. I heard a crash upstairs and then some quick moving. I looked at mom and she laughed silently. He must have fallen off of his chair again. The door flew open and he grinned at us. Austin ran up the stairs to him.

"I got chinese!" He said happily as he walked down the stairs.

"I could smell it darling," Mom said to him as she pulled Austin to the back yard.

Damien was a year older than me, 16 years old. He was a few inches taller than me, I think, and I was about 64 inches. He was like a best friend to me. We were more like a couple than a brother and sister.

"Wow!" Damien looked at me, his hand on his chin like he was in thought. "I like it.." He touched the soft fabric of my new dress. "But," He started.

"But what, Dami?" I looked at him suddenly sad.

"You don't have any straps on this dress."

I cracked up at how blunt he was. He was so overprotective it was funny. He didn't laugh.

"I'm not kidding, Trish." He took my hand, and I blushed a little. Many of my friends thought I had a brother fetish. Yes, I may think it's cute when he's overprotective, and I may get a little flattered when he talks to me like he loves me, but I know he doesn't feel the same. And no, it isn't wrong, because he is adopted. It's not like we're related by blood or anything.

"Well I'm not either!" I glared at him. Just because I liked him didn't mean that I didn't get mad at him like any sister would. "I can wear whatever I want, Dami." I pouted.

"But still, I don't want you looking like that... You know.. In public.." He looked down, and I smirked.

"So you're jealous?" He snapped his head towards me. "You really think I'm that pretty? That boys will be lining up to see me? Hmm?"

"No!" I mean..." He thought for a minute. "I'm worried about you."

"Damien, I don't think you realize that I can worry about myself I'm only a year younger. Im 15 for crying out loud!" I raised my voice.

"I don't care! I don't think dad would want you wearing such.. Such a slutty outfit either!" He stopped there, abruptly.

I took a deep breath. He knew I still had a sot spot for dad. He did NOT need to go and tell me what dad would want. Making me feel guilty was no the way to go about this. "You know what Damien? I think I'm going to go take a walk." Dami just looked at me with apology. I opened the door out of my room quietly, and walked out. Then I slammed the door in his face, as he had stood to try and stop me. I got to the bottom of the stairs, and heard the door open. I kept walking until I heard the door open and Damien point out, "It's raining." I stopped, holding my breath. I turned, hearing the jacket falling towards me fastly. I caught it, and just walked out the front door.

I walked through the freezing rain to my nearby park. There was a big field next to it that I would always walk around. There were a lot of rocks in it, big ones, tall ones, small ones. No one knew where they had come from. Dami and I used to always look at some of the things written on them. They were just like trees that people would engrave their names onto them, like couples would engrave their initials. You would find printings on them, and it was like a tradition around here. I remember me and my brother came here the night we found out dad died, and we wrote the date on one of the rocks.

"Hey Dami, come over here." He looked at Trisha. They were both crying. Their father had passed, and they had run out of the house from their mom. They ran straight to the field.

"What Trish?" He looked at her sadly.

She pulled out a metal rod, that was pointy at the end. "Come here, sit." She patted the ground. She put her arm around an eleven-year-old Damien and told him, "Let's write the date here, so that we will never forget it."

He nodded at her solemnly an she engraved it into the rock.

December 17, 2006.

I walked over to the rock, and sighed. I touched the faded date and let a tear fall. I missed him so much. I was always the one to keep Damien from falling apart. I think I needed to be helping him, or else I would have fallen apart myself. I kept walking, and saw a circle engraved in a rock. I had seen it before. I was always fascinated by it, it was perfectly drawn. It had pretty designs in it and I would always wonder who engraved it. I sighed. It was cold, but I still hadn't put on my jacket. The rain was heavily falling now. In sheets. I walked to a tree a few hundred feet away and sat against it. Since it was almost Christmas, there were no leaves on the trees. The tree offered no protection. Then I closed my eyes for a minute.

Only a minute.

Because a minute later my life had changed.

Lightning struck, very close. I was deaf for at least a minute after. It was literally right in front me. I was also blinded. The lightning was bright, and blue. Since I had never seen lightning so close, I guessed that lightning was usually this blue when you were this close and disoriented. I stood, and looked around, blinking rapidly, and trying to regain my senses. Even the ground had shook.

When things became normal again, I sighed. I went to look at where the lightning struck. It was very close by. Almost like it hit right where I just was... No. It couldn't have hit my rock. That rock meant a lot to me.

Apparently I have worse luck than I thought, because by then i knew that it was right there. Our rock was cracked and in many many pieces. But that wasn't the worst part. There was a boy. He was right in the rubble of the rock with the Circle on it. Nothing was on fire, but that was obviously impossible due to the rain that was yet falling. He had blonde hair, and it was in a very messy braid. He had a red cape and black looking suit on underneath. He smelled a little, like old food. He was right where the lightning had struck.

His face was familiar. Like I had seen him before. But then again, if I had seen him before I would have remembered that getup.

I yelled "Hey!" And ran right to him. He looked like he wasn't hurt. What the hell? I thought. How could this kid that I didn't see a minute before the lightning suddenly appear here in the rubble of a rock that was just destroyed by lightning... And not be charred! "Hey! Hey kid!" I yelled loudly. He didn't respond. He was knocked out, apparently. I ran to him, and shook his shoulders after falling to my knees. The rain was still falling, and now both of us were soaked. I didn't think it would help, but i put the jacket Dami threw at me onto the boy. He squinted at me for a moment, not looking directly at my eyes. He was obviously disoriented. He shivered and fell back asleep.

I was freaking out inside, wondering what I should do. Should I bring him home or what? No... I couldn't do that, Damien would get overprotective. Mom would be okay with it but Dami would rather eat Brussels sprouts and Lima beans for a whole week straight before letting this boy in our house. Even if he was hurt.

That was when my phone rang. I was so into staring at this strange boy in the rain, that when my phone music blared and my phone vibrated in my pocket, I flipped out and fell back into the mud on the ground. It was Dami's ringtone. Shit, he must want to know where I am.

"H-Hello?" I answered.

"Are you okay?" Damien's voice was loud and worried. He was panting. He must be on his way here. He knew this is were I would go if we got into a fight.

"Yes, I'm fine," I grunted a little, as i pulled the boy off of the ground and onto my shoulder. I was crouched and was trying to move him somewhere where my brother wouldn't find him. I lifted him all the way onto my back with one hand, and tried to stand.

"Okay good, because I can't come get you. Could you come home on your own?" What?

"Huh? But aren't you already outside?" I asked. I kept trying to stand, and finally did. Good thing this boy was small. He was only and inch or two taller. He was lighter that I thought. Did he eat enough?

"Austin jumped the fence when he heard the thunder, and now me and mom are after him."

It was hard t keep balance. I was holding my phone with my right hand, and the boy with my left. I sighed and replied, "Okay." I knew that my dog could run fast, and that it would take them bit to catch him. I decided that I could just bring the boy to my room. He needed somewhere to stay, at least for tonight. I shut my phone and put it into one of my only dry pockets in the front of my jeans. I gabbed him with my other hand and pulled him all the way onto my back.

He moved a little, and I froze, thinking he was awake. I took the chance and moved my arms to hold him piggy-back style. He went limp almost immediately, and I sighed. I made it. I then walked as fast I could while hunched over with a boy on my back to my house. Every once and a while, I would feel him jolt, like he was having a bad dream. Finally making it, I brought him to my room.

Well... I tried.

It was nearly impossible to carry him up the stairs, so I kind of dragged him up the stairs, leaving a wet trail behind us. It would be hard to explain it to my family. He seemed in pain,but then again, I wouldn't blame him for it. His head was hitting the stairs every time I moved him.

I couldn't help but laugh once he was in my room. This was hilarious. I took off my jacket from his limp body, and opened the door to the bathroom that connected to only my room. I had almost a master bedroom. I dragged him into my bathtub, and tried to keep him right side up.

I walked back and shut my door, then locked it.

Stretching, I took off my wet clothes that were plastered to my body and set them down. I got pjs on and walked to the bathroom to focus on the familiar boy.

I took off his red cape, and unbuttoned his black shirt. If my mom saw me, she would probably just squeal with happiness that i had finally found a guy. I didn't really care though, because the only person who I even remotely liked was my brother.

But even then... This guy had abs. and Dami just had a flat stomach... I focused and just continued to take off his freezing shirt. I pulled off the shirt and gasped. He had a metal arm. I couldn't tell before because it was covered by his gloves, (which for some odd reason had little circles like the one on the rock, even though they weren't the same design.) Which I then slid off as well. I hung his clothes, and went to my room to grab him a shirt and pants.

I did this quickly, because even though I had a large bathtub, it was still uncomfortable for the boy to be in such an awkward position. I grabbed the biggest, boy like clothes I had and rushed in to him.

He was shivering now, and so I quickly (and awkwardly) put his arms through the sleeves and buttoned the shirt.

Now was when I blushed. How was I going to get him in the pants?

My best answer: Close your eyes.

No, I wasn't going to see anything but boxers, but still, i felt it would be awkward. Not only that, but any man had his right to his own dignity... I wasn't about to ruin that for him.

I went to where his feet were and took off his shoes and socks. Then i grabbed the cuffs of his black pants and closed my eyes. I yanked and yanked until they came flying off and i fell back against the wall. I smiled, feeling successful. Now was the hard part. I had to get the pjs ON him. I sighed and felt the floor for the pants i had grabbed.

I found them, and braced myself.

About five minutes later, I was wiping my hands together, feeling accomplished. The boy was in my bed, nice and warm.

I went out of my room to greet my mom and brother who had just gotten home. They said goodnight, me lightly kissing my mom goodnight, sure not to touch her wet clothes. I waved at the top of the stairs, and ran to my room.

I shut, and locked the door. I shut the lights off, and awkwardly crawled into bed with the strange, and now warm boy. His hair was a little wet, I could feel it on the pillow, but I just chuckled. It was a good thing that my mom and brother were working early tomorrow, and I would have the house to myself all day. It would be good to sort things out.

My thoughts were cut short as the boy grabbed me, and pulled me in. Was he awake? I didn't think so. He just kept pulling me and the blankets closer until I couldn't move. I blushed, and just sighed. I didn't want to wake him, so i stayed there, my head near his shoulder and chest. I dug my face down so that it wasn't directly facing his, and I fell asleep warm, feeling his chin move to create a soft smile on his face.

Boy, was he going to flip in the morning.

A/N

Okay.. so that was my first chapter, sorry for any missing letters, my computer keys are spazzing out. So is my shift button, so not all caps worked... ^_^''

and yes, the whole weird rock thing was sketchy, but I was not sure how else anything logical would bring him here... oh well ill figure it out later...

Anyway Please review, I love reviews, and I'll hopefully update tomorrow!

(chapter fixed!)

-R~Chu!