Sweat crawled down the boy's forehead. He brought his arm up and wiped it away, not willing to let it go down any further. It's tickling was distracting him from his work. Finally, he sighed and leaned back into the chair. He wasn't getting anywhere with this.

Alfonse Elric stared at the circles and calculations on the paper in front of him. After spending a year in this new world, he and his brother had been trying to find ways to help prevent the imminent war. It was bound to be bigger and far more dangerous, spreading across this continent like a plague. Al knew that this war would force every able-bodied boy into the war, and he and Edward did not want to be apart of the fighting.

But that wasn't what he was working on at the moment. Ed may have become content and happy in this other world, but Al was curious. When Ed had explained the events preceding what had happened last year when they had finally been reunited, Al was confused. Ed said that this world didn't allow for people to perform alchemy. So how had Ed activated the circle the first time?

The second time Al figured had to do with the fact that he had opened a portal on their side, or that their father's death had something to do with it. But Al wanted to know.

Was there a way to do alchemy here?

They had eventually figured out how to destroy the original portal. It was surprisingly simple. Al and Ed had blown up some of the supporting structures around it, which forced Envy's body to pull away and come away from the circle, causing it to lose its foundation. It had deteriorated away quickly, and because of all the energy that was suddenly stopped, Envy also been destroyed. His body was slowly deteriorating in that place that they had left.

Al pulled his attention back to his notes. Edward didn't know that Al was researching alchemy, which was why Al only worked on it when Ed was at work. Ed worked with the Germans to try to ensure equality in their social system along with Noah. Al worked at the flower shop down the street with Gracie, especially working overtime in the recent months during her last term of pregnancy.

Shaking his head clear, Al gets up and walks to the kitchen. He grabbed a piece of chalk and began to draw a simple transmutation circle on the table. Al looks at it and nods. Clapping his hands together, he slammed his hands down and-

"Al, I'm home!"

Al looks up quickly, "Oh-, uh, I thought you weren't supposed to back until later, Ed." Al glances down at the table. Nothing had happened.

Ed walked into the room with a big grin on his face. "Yeah, things were going really well, so we got done early…" He trailed off when he saw what Al was doing.

"Uh," Al stuttered, "I can explain. Really, I can."

"Al…" Ed looked at the transmutation circle on the table. "What were you trying to do? You know that we can't perform alchemy here. It's impossible."

"Then how did you do it a year ago with the Gate?" Al asked him.

Gold eyes met gold eyes with surprise. "I… I don't know. I never really thought about it…" Ed admitted. "After I got you back… I don't really care either."

"Yes you do, brother," Al accused him. "I know you. You couldn't get rid of alchemy if you tried. It's in our blood…. Besides, I know you've done it here in this world. You activated that circle once, and father did it the second time. I've been trying to figure out how you did it and what was different."

Ed frowned. "I don't know what was different. But I know that both times alchemy was used on this side of the Gate that Envy was involved. And we both know that he died after we destroyed the Gate. It's not going to work…"

"But…" Al denied, "I don't think it has to do with him! At least, he wasn't the one who activated the Gate- you were. And you said that the Gate didn't activate until Dad killed himself and the blood—" Al stopped talking, his eyes widening with his epiphany.

"Al?" Ed questioned, "What is it Al? What about Dad and—"

"What did you do before you activated the array?"

Ed looked at Alfonse with surprise. "I don't know… it's been 3 years, Al, how would I know?"

Al shook his head. "I know you, Ed. You know—what did you do?"

Ed glared at his brother. Why was he being so persistent? Why couldn't he accept that they were stuck without alchemy for good? He stubbornly said, "Fine. I had finished redrawing the array. If I remember correctly, I wiped my cheek and touched the array. That's when it activated."

Al looked down thoughtfully at the array on the table. He asked, "Was there anything on your gloves when you touched the array? Sweat? Or… blood?"

"I don't know… I know I had cut my cheek, I think… Wait, do you mean?"

Al met Ed's questioning eyes with his own determined and confident gaze. "It's blood. That's how alchemy works here!"

Ed's eyes widened at the discovery. "Wait… Hohenheim told me, the first time that I had come here, that the human deaths here are the fuel for the alchemic energy on our side of the Gate. It makes sense that it would take our own energy for it work here!"

Al grinned excitedly. "It's really is possible! We can do it here!"

Ed matched Al's grin. "One way to find out, eh?" He took off his left glove and bit his thumb. His teeth broke the skin, and blood welled up to the surface.

And he slammed the barely-bloodied hand down onto the transmutation circle.

A flash of light briefly blinded the brothers.

When it disappeared, a small wooden horse stood on the table.

The Elric Brothers had rediscovered their Alchemy.

Chapter 1 of 3.

Word Count: 1021 words

Author's Note:

This is a three-chapter story that I am doing a quick write up of. I have been… somewhat unsatisfied with some of the FMA stories that I have read (not all, just some), especially with how some of them have worked. This story is simply a return home story for the boys, and I really could just end it here. But I have two more chapters planned out that I hope to write up soon.

This is my first FMA story, and I've only been apart of the fandom for around 2 weeks (blame my brother for getting me hooked on the series- I watched the original anime series in roughly 24 hours. I just couldn't help myself!) I hope I did a good job of keeping them in character, although I admit that Ed seems to be a bit out of it to me. But I like the idea of Al being persistent in the pursuit of Alchemy.

Now, for my disclaimer: I do not own FullMetal Alchemist, Edward (Ed) Elric, or Alphonse (Al) Elric.