"What's wrong brother?" The high, childish voice clashed eerily against its source, a hulking suit of armor which had to take up two different seats on the speeding train.
Edward didn't respond at first; the blond haired boy was staring intently into his reflection in the pocket watch he carried with him, but never opened. Never opened, except maybe one a year, when he didn't think Al was looking at him.
Al sighed hollowly. Not that he had much choice about the echoing. His brother would do this a lot; stare into space or something shutting out the outside world, not completely, but enough that he wouldn't break his concentration for something unimportant. Its part of what made him a great alchemist. But that didn't mean it was nice.
Of course Al knew 'What's wrong' was a phenomenally stupid question. They both knew one another's issues backwards and forwards by this point, and Al knew that Ed knew that what Al had really meant was "don't be sad". Ed always hated it when his brother tried to soften is words too much between the two of them. Of course Al didn't care, or rather he cared too much to pretend that he didn't.
They let the moment pass, before Alphonse spoke again.
"Now that you're a state alchemist, we have access to the central library, we'll find something. I mean we've waited this long, another week or two doesn't matter to me."
He felt he had to emphasize that last syllable. Ed had always felt that his little brother had gotten the rawer end of the deal… which Al had to admit was true at least physically speaking. Having had time to watch the mental torment his big brother put himself through sometimes, Al had to wonder if losing his body had been getting off easy after all.
"I know…" Said Ed sadly, "Assuming they ever let us stay in central long enough to actually do any research that is." He squirmed a little in his chair as he returned his pocket watch to its designated pocket, his legs, not quite touching the ground kicked a little with the movement.
"Do you ever get the feeling.,," He started as the outside world was abruptly cut off by the pitch black of a tunnel the train was entering.
"That life is just arrayed against you?" he finished, looking straight into Al's eyes, or where they should be anyway.
Al took a sharp intake of breath and started to say something. He'd noticed a pattern his brother had somehow missed; every time Ed said something dramatic like that, without fail, something /bad/ happened soon after.
And once again, Alphonse didn't have time to respond before the train shook with a small detonation a couple of cars back, and the lights blinked out.
