Love in a Hopeless Place

1: Meeting the Elric Brothers

A/N: this is my first fanfic, but I have considerable experience reading fanfiction. This story will also take place in the story of the manga and Brotherhood because Netflix took down the original before I could watch it. Damn it. It starts at the end of chapter 33: 'Emissary from the East' (manga), and episode 15: 'Envoy from the East'' (anime).

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot of the story. All characters and settings belong to Hiromu Arakawa.

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Chapter 1: Meeting the Elric Brothers

"Bye, Nana. Have a good day! Make sure to tell Papa that I love him." You said to your grandma as you left for work in the morning.

"See you after work, dear. You have a good day too." Your Nana said from the kitchen. You had been living with your grandparents ever since the civil war. Even when you turned 18, you didn't have the heart to move out and leave your grandparents all alone. Soon after, your grandfather became deathly ill and is now living full-time at the hospital at the other end of the city.

"I love you," you said before you closed and locked the door behind you.

You worked at a small jewelry store just down the street from your house in Rush Valley. You liked it there, where you worked. On your way to work, you passed Garfiel's automail store. "Wait, doesn't Mr. Garfiel have an apprentice now?" You thought to yourself. A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes poked her head out the door.

"Hello there! Are you alright? I heard you talking to yourself." She said to you. Damn it. You didn't realize that you had said that out loud. "I'm Mr. Garfiel's apprentice. How may I help you?" Her voice shifted from a practiced customer service tone almost immediately when she continued, "You don't look like you have automail, though."

"No, I don't. Sorry for taking time out of your busy day."

"No need to apologize. I just started my day too! By the way, my name's Winry. Winry Rockbell. What's yours?" She asked with her hand out and a pleasant smile on her face.

You shook her hand and introduced yourself, smiling back at her. "I work at the jewelry store a couple of shops down. It was nice meeting you, Winry." You said to the blonde.

"Swing by anytime you want to chat! Or you could call. Up to you, I guess. I shouldn't keep you from getting to work any longer."

"Well, it's good I left home early, then. Talk to you later!" You said as you waved and turned to continue your relatively short walk to the jewelry store.

You had a relatively typical work day, nothing out of the ordinary, save for the occasional overly picky and critical customer. Those who didn't appreciate your artistry but still came to your shop ticked you off. After that encounter, the rest of your day was decent enough.

On your way back home, you decided to chat with Winry. When you entered the lobby, you saw Winry with three people you didn't know. She was holding a wrench, standing over a beaten-up golden-haired boy who resembled a pile of goo, and someone wearing armour was fussing over him. There was also a boy with a ponytail sitting on the windowsill, wearing a yellow jacket with white flames along the hem.

"I don't even think I want to know what happened here, but I'm going to ask anyways. What the hell happened?" You said the last part a little louder than you meant to.

"This idiot broke my masterpiece." Winry stated plainly.

"Who are these people?" You asked

"Ling Yao! I'm from Xing. Nice to meet you, pretty lady!" Ponytail boy said enthusiastically