"A ball?" You asked the two blondes. "As in, a dance? With just the people from the castle?"

"Yeah, why not? It'll be fun!" Winry said. Her agreeing to the idea wasn't what surprised you. No, what surprised you was that Edward had been the one to suggest it.

"Come on, I'm sure Al would love to dance with you again," Edward said playfully, causing two faces to become dusted in pink.

"B-brother!" Alphonse squealed.

"Calm down, I'm just teasing. Besides, we can have the servants come and dance, too, if you don't want to be alone," Ed told you both.

You looked at them thoughtfully. After a moment you gave them your answer.

"I don't see any reason to not have one. It sounds like a fun idea, let's do it!" You declared happily.

"Great! We can get the servants to start setting up for it. Let's have it in, say, three days?" Winry asked.

"Sounds fine to me," Edward agreed.

***

You swept the floor, broom in hand. Since the dance was coming up so quickly, you had decided to help out in any way you could. That included cleaning, organizing things, etcetera. You swept the dirt that had accumulated over the unknown amount of time since the main entranceway had been cleaned.

You spun in a circle, mimicking dancing as you hummed quietly to yourself. Your eyes remained on the ground as you worked.

A loud noise reverberated around the room as the front door of the castle slammed open. (E/c) orbs darting towards the opening, your eyes eventually resting upon a woman with dreadlock-like hair. She was wearing what reminded you of a sleeveless lab coat, black pants, and a pair of sandals. A taller, muscular man was behind her, and the pair looked rather threatening together. The woman's stern eyes glanced around the room, eventually landing on you.

You subconsciously flinched. A clacking sound echoed as she made her way over to you. Stopping a few feet in front of you, she looked down, and her eyes softened as she met your gaze.

"Hello there. My name's Izumi. And who might you be?"

"U-um, I-I'm," you mentally cursed your usual nervousness around new people. It didn't exactly help that this woman had just literally kicked the door down, but with a gulp, you replied, "M-my name's (Y/n)."

"Well," she held out her hand, and you hesitantly took it in a handshake. "It's nice to meet you (Y/n). If you don't mind me asking," her eyes returned to a serious, scary expression, "where are Edward and Alphonse?"

"(Y/n), I hope you don't mind me joining you in," Alphonse walked into your line of sight from one of the hallways connecting to the entranceway. Arms loaded with cleaning supplies, he froze in place when he saw the woman standing in front of you.

Izumi turned to look at him, surveying his appearance. She slowly walked over to him.

"Alphonse?" She asked.

"T-teacher?"

Izumi sighed, and she held out her hand in a way similar to how she had acted with you.

"You've really grown up, huh?"

"U-uh, yeah," Al set the supplies on the ground next to him, then reached to shake her hand.

You let out a loud gasp of surprise as Izumi flipped him over so that he was on the ground, lying on his back.

'How can she have that much strength!? She doesn't look that big!'

"Now, where's your brother Alphonse?" A stoic expression was held on her face, staring down at the armored boy, one foot on top of him. Before Al could respond, her expression quickly paled, and she stepped back and to the side, clutching her stomach. Blood emerged from her mouth, and the man that had accompanied her was almost immediately by her side.

"Izumi, don't push yourself," he said.

"Aw, thanks Sig," Izumi said. She hugged him around the neck, cuddling him and kissing his face.

Alphonse sat up, looking a little startled.

"M-miss Izumi, are you okay!? Do you need a doctor, o-or a first aid kit?" You asked hastily.

She looked at you reassuringly.

"I'm fine, this happens all the time."

"Teacher, are you sure you're alright?" Al asked again for you.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Now seriously, where's your brother?"

"H-he's up in the west wing right now. B-but, I wouldn't go up there right now, he's," Alphonse thought for a second. There would certainly be a problem if she saw Edward in his current state. An idea popped into his mind, and he quickly finished his sentence. "He's not feeling well."

"Not feeling well? That's no excuse to be staying up in his room all day! I'm over here coughing up blood, and he thinks a little ailment gives him the right to be antisocial! Not on my watch!" Izumi shouted, stomping up the stairs to Ed's location.

You and Alphonse stared up the stairs after her. You didn't know what she was going to do when she found him as a hairy beast, but judging from Al's hesitation, it was likely somewhere along the lines of, 'impending doom'.

"Sh-Should I just keep cleaning, or should I come back and finish later? And what should I do about that blood?" You asked hesitantly, pointing at Izumi's puddle of blood.

"I'll take care of the blood, you can finish sweeping if you would like," the now named man, Sig, told you. He went over to the cleaning supplies Alphonse had placed down before getting flipped and started cleaning the pool of red.

You silently watched for a moment, before you returned to sweeping. Your mind flooded with questions and concerns, wondering about what Al had meant when he called Izumi 'teacher', and why she had said puking blood was normal for her. You were more concerned about her health than the reasons behind it, but that was just the way you were.

Alphonse started to creep away, the usual metal clinking accompanying the action. Sig's head snapped in his direction.

"Alphonse, where are you going?"

Al froze mid step, quickly turning around.

"U-uh, I was, going to clean a different room," he said nervously.

"You can stay here, I don't bite," Sig said.

"I think he's more worried about your," you trailed off, not sure what the couple's relationship was.

"Wife."

"Aww, that's adorable!" You squealed. Lovey-dovey husband and wife couples were one type of public show of affection you didn't mind.

"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to her finding Ed," Alphonse laughed anxiously.

"How come?" Sig questioned.

"W-well, uh..."

A loud crash came from the way Izumi had gone, interrupting him. All of you turned to look in that direction, to see Ed racing down the stairs, running on all fours and skipping every other step.

"Alphonse! How could you sell out your own brother!?"

"I'm sorry! She was scary, and she was going to find you eventually," Alphonse apologized.

"Edward and Alphonse Elric! You have some explaining to do!" Izumi shouted, kicking Ed's feet out from under him and grabbing him by the shirt collar. She dragged him across the floor, coming over and repeating the action with Al, grabbing him by the neck part of his armor.

Alphonse made what sounded like a terrified whimper as Izumi headed for one of the empty rooms down a nearby hallway. He looked at you, silently pleading for help.

Sig silently followed after his wife, not asking any questions, leaving you to be the only one in the room when they all left.

You silently mouthed a 'sorry' before the door to the room they entered closed and you were alone.

You stared at the door, unmoving for several moments, before you shrugged and continued sweeping.

You were pretty sure she wasn't going to kill them.

For the most part.

***

You were right. She didn't kill them. In fact, a few hours later, she was supervising the servants.

"Mustang's team, you have the ballroom! Make the floors shiny! And make everything else look brand new!"

The servants assigned to work with Roy saluted, before marching off towards their assigned place.

"Wow, she certainly knows how to organize a cleanup crew. They might even get the entire castle cleaned in time for the dance, let alone the rooms we're actually using," Winry said amazed, watching with you from the sidelines.

You nodded your head in agreement.

"I'm a little OCD sometimes, but it's a lot easier to take care of when you have an entire team of servants listening to you. I like her! She's nice, but at the same time she's scary. Like Santa!"

You looked on as the groups ran off to their designated areas. You glanced around and saw Alphonse, Edward, and Sig all talking across the room. Having nothing better to do now that cleaning was organized and taken care of, you started trying to figure out what they were talking about, but without walking over so you could actually hear they were saying. It would be too much work to do that.

Edward seemed to be explaining something to Sig. He was moving his arms around dramatically, and pointed in an over-enthusiastic way at Alphonse. Al's helmet tinted a deep pink color, and he looked at the ground and rubbed the back of his head.

'Ed said something embarrassing,' you thought, grinning.

Sig appeared to chuckle, then started talking. Alphonse continued looking at the ground, still avoiding eye contact. As Sig finished, Al looked back up at them and, you assumed, replied to what they were saying. After a little while, Ed playfully elbowed his brother on his chest plate.

Suddenly, they all looked over at you. Your face heated up, and you quickly looked away towards the ground.

"Get caught staring at your knight in shining armor?" Winry teased.

Your eyes glanced over to see her smirking.

"Were you just staring at me that entire time?" You asked, wondering how long she had been watching.

"No, just the last couple of minutes. You should really just tell him already," she cooed.

"You're one to talk, Winry. You know exactly why I don't want to. It's the same reason you haven't told Edward," you replied.

Winry chuckled, "True, but Al acts pretty open about it. Shy, but open."

You sighed.

"How could anyone like me in that way? I'm just the shy bookworm everybody seems to go to for advice. It's probably just platonic love."

"He's probably thinking the same thing. You're both just too scared to tell each other. Ignoring the feeling won't make it go away."

"I know, I know. But," you trailed off again.

"How about you tell him after the ball," Winry suggested.

You looked at her for a few seconds, eventually sighing as you realized she wasn't going to let you get away with not telling him.

"Okay, I will. But you better tell Ed the same thing after I tell Al."

Winry hummed, before holding out her hand. Realizing what she was doing, you smiled, grabbing it and shaking it firmly.

"Deal?" she asked.

"Deal."

"Do you two girls want to help me organize these groups? We can't have the boys be in charge, can we?" Izumi called from her spot in the room.

You and Winry made eye contact, smiling, and in sync, called.

"We'll be right there!"

***

"I still can't believe how quickly that time passed," Winry told you, holding her hair in place as one of the servants put it up.

You hummed, messing with your dress. It was a sky blue color, a puffy skirt that reminded you of rose petals made up the lower portion of it. The top had little spots of concentrated sparkles, making it look like it had tiny spots.

Winry's dress was a pretty yellow, with a hoop skirt like shape, and draped parts of fabric around the outfit. Both outfits were beautiful. (A/N- Almost put fabulous. XD)

Your hair had already been all done, pulled back with your bangs still hanging freely in front of your face. While Winry was getting a complicated hairstyle, you kept it simple. At least it was up, unlike usual.

"Both of you look beautiful," you heard a voice say.

You both turned to see Izumi standing in the entranceway of the room, a simple white dress adorning her.

You blushed at the comment, stuttering out a thanks.

"Hey miss Izumi, can I ask you a question?" Winry asked from where she sat.

"Go right ahead Winry," she told her.

"Why did you decide to help out the brothers with putting on a ball? It just, doesn't seem like your kind of thing."

"Well," Izumi began, "when you see people that you think of as your children struggling with something, you can't help but help them out!"

Winry and you looked at her confused, then glanced at each other.

"I, guess that makes sense," Winry said.

You all heard a knock on the door. Looking at it, it opened to reveal Riza. Since she couldn't wear a dress, she had a flower on the side of what would be her hair. It didn't suit her well, but she did look pretty with it.

"Are you all ready in here?"

Winry and Izumi nodded, and you just let them answer for you.

"Alright then, if you'll follow me," Riza walked down the hall. The group followed, first Winry, then Izumi, and lastly you. At the door you hesitated.

Izumi looked back at you, stopping when she saw you weren't moving.

"(Y/n), is something wrong?"

"S-sorry," you answered. "Just nervous."

She waited for you as you walked forward, allowing you to go in front of her.

"What's there to be nervous about?" She asked as you moved towards your destination.

(A/N- Ayyyy I got an update out again! I just wanted to talk for a little to say some things.

First off, I probably won't be updating this for a little while, the next couple of weeks at least. It's not that I don't want to write it, I'm just going to be pretty busy during the summer (Going to Europe the first week out of school, whoop whoop!), but I'll update when I can! I do have (at least most of) the rest of the story planned out in my head, so that's good.

And secondly, I'm gonna be writing something for my book of Alphonse x Reader one-shots, and I am REALLY looking forward to it. It's a one-shot that I am really happy with the idea of, and I cannot wait to write it. It's probably gonna be long, since the plot's kinda complicated.

It's an Alphonse x Dying! Reader.

Should you prepare your feels? You'll have to wait and see, because you don't get to know any more details about the plot.

Anyways, thanks for reading!)