The Missing Hour

"Why not?" Alphonse demanded.

"'Why not?' Al, the answer's totally obvious! Some strange girl with strange powers and not to mention a strange way of speaking quite literally shows up out of nowhere and you just want to adopt her like those stray cats you always find? In case you've forgotten, we have something important to do and I'm not in the mood to play babysitter when she's only going to get in our way!" Edward retorted, slamming a gloved hand on the table. "We know nothing about her. Not… where she's from, how she got here, or why she's here!"

"And that's supposed to be different?" the younger brother sassed, his grey eyes flashing.

"Different from what?" the blond asked.

"Different from us. Her situation is so similar to ours I'm shocked you didn't see that. She comes from a different world, like us, but she has nothing and no one. I had you when I came here, and you had Dad. I don't care what you say; yell at me all you want. Helping that girl is the right thing to do," Alphonse snapped.

He paused to take a breath, running his hand through his hair.

"Remember how we used to say 'we're all we've got'? We're all she's got right now, regardless of what you say," he finished.

"Dammit, Al, I don't want to put an innocent girl's life at risk because of our mistakes. We've screwed up our own lives enough; I'm not going to endanger someone else's," Edward sighed.

"She reminds me of you, Brother," Alphonse said solemnly. "I'm not sure what it is but something about her is so… echoic of you and…" he paused, looking for the right words.

Edward blanched for a moment. That girl reminded Alphonse of himself? Was that even possible?

"I can't leave her alone!" Alphonse continued. "She looks strong, but she can be fragile too! Not every girl can be like teacher or Winry… I think that if we don't do something she'll die!"

The blond blinked, awed and slightly shocked by how much effort Alphonse was putting into this argument. Honestly, it was starting to make a bit of sense the more they argued.

"Ed, trust me… we can't just turn a blind eye and let her wander around this world by herself when she knows almost nothing about it… we need to help her. I'm not sure why but we need to," he insisted.

"There's no logical reason to explain why she's here, unless she passed through the Gate like we did," Edward sighed again. "But since you're being so persistent, I guess she can stay provided she pulls her own weight."

"Really? Thank you so much, Brother!" Alphonse cried, throwing his arms around Edward like they were little kids. Edward found himself smiling.

Despite Alphonse's strange defense of the girl, he could see the logic in his argument. The girl… Christin, he should probably start calling her… seemed just as confused and lost as he had when he first arrived in this world. And he could see that reflection of himself Alphonse mentioned, though he couldn't exactly pinpoint it right now. He'd have to get to know her better before he could do that.

And because of that, he was going to stay by her side, to make sure she didn't make the same mistakes he had… he would stay with her… and watch over her.

A/N: huzzah, the first bonus story is done! This happens in the first chapter of DXM, when Ed and Al leave while Gracia gets Rin some clothes to make her less conspicuous. I was re-reading DXM and I was wondering what exactly Ed and Al would've talked about during that hour, so here it is.

It'll be a bonus story in the manga too. *throws arms in air and drops notebook into cat's water dish* I really need to get back to work on that… I'm almost done with chapter three!... out of forty-nine plus a million (exaggeration) bonus stories.

Right, so these bonus stories are just what goes on between the major chapters and time jumps. Enjoy!