AN: Hi to you! This story is slightly post-movie-ish, but mostly pre-movie.

Containing graphic sexual yaoi, so consider yourself warned. More importantly, hope you'll enjoy it! And if you do, I'd be happy for any kind of feedback. Please don't forget that a small review is enough to feed the soul of the writer.

DC: I don't own FMA, the movie, or any of its characters.

Chapter 1: Secrets

--

Munich in the cold season of autumn was never silent or dead-looking, despite of the economical crisis as a consequence of the Great War. People were rather encouraged of the thought of better times ahead. It was 2:30 in the morning, but a small local pub was still crowded and lively.

"The guy I was up against was a crossing between a person and an ox," Edward Elric said disturbingly calm, after emptying another pint. The blond young man sat on a high chair by the bar, surrounded by a mob of loud, laughing people. They seemed to be interested in the babble, as always. And Edward told the stories like he usually did when he was drunk. About another world.

"How can a person be an ox?" one of the men asked dumbly.

Edward sighed, like he had to tell a kid why the sky is blue. "With alchemy, of course. You have a human, and you have an ox. Then you use alchemy to combine them together. The result is called a chimera, a crossing. But it is illegal. Human transmutation is illegal."

Alfons Heiderich sat a few feet away, eyeing his roommate with a slight twirl in his stomach, ready to break in if things got out of hand. To somehow stand guard to prevent the blond from getting into trouble. He sighed, actually wishing he could be as careless as his roommate, have another beer and listen with as much enthusiasm Edward liked. Maybe he liked this attention a little too much.

Of course Edward seemed to fully believe whatever came out of his own mouth; either the story was about artificial humans who could shift shape, or alchemy – that it was possible to change the mass of an object by drawing a circle and make the necessary energy.

It was too surreal to imagine for Alfons (and probably everyone else as well, although they pretended to believe him for the sake of fun). Alfons had tried to talk to him a lot of times before. But he knew it wouldn't change what Edward himself believed.

"My brother and I were quite talented alchemists," Edward continued. "Me and Al, we travelled a lot together all over Amestris."

Alfons sighed deep. Here we go again. Edward often talked about his brother from the other world. Who for some peculiar reason had the same name as him. Alphonse. Or Alfons. Edward's dream was to return to him some day.

He had told Alfons that he had to come here in exchange for his brother's life. And that he didn't yet know if his brother was still alive.

The first time Alfons had listened to the stories, he thought it was something Edward made up for the sake of fun and entertaining. It was something to laugh about. To take his mind away from other things. But after a while, he silently came to understand that to Edward, it wasn't just stories. It was his reality. Which he had to walk away from for some reason. Alfons didn't know what to believe himself.

His throat started to itch, and he coughed silently into his arm. Damned cough… It was getting worse. He felt an ache in his lungs as he crouched over in ugly contractions, as discreetly as he could. He didn't want to alarm people. But the laughter and voices and music in the pub was loud enough to tone it all down.

As he finally got rid of the sudden cough, he turned to tell Edward it was time to go home, but he stopped abruptly.

A really big, bold guy had taken notice of Edward's storytelling. He had grabbed the slim (and short, compared to the bold) ponytailed boy by the front of his shirt, and held him firmly. "You want everyone to believe that crap?"

Edward's eyes narrowed. "You got a problem, fatass?"

Alfons gulped. If only Edward could censor his mouth in his alcoholic state. And the other guys didn't seem to help, where they rather encouraged both of them to fight.

"Fight him like you did with that ox-man!"

"Kick his brains out!"

Alfons tried to dig his way through the horde. "That's enough! Edward, let's go!" But to his frightful annoyance, he was only shoved back by the crowd.

"Who are you calling a fatass, shorty?" The bold guy asked dangerously. Then he swung his fist against Edward's face.

Alfons' breath hitched into a short gasp, and wanted to look away. Edward obviously didn't stand a chance.

But somehow Edward dodged it with a perfect ease by jerking his head to the side just in time, while he still was being held by the guy's other hand.

The move obviously irritated the older. "You little…" he begun angrily. Around them the crowd was getting quite excited.

Edward eyes darkened, and closed his right hand tightly around the bold man's wrist.

The bold man blinked and gave out a squeak of pain. It was barely audible though, through all the shouting.

"I'm not small," Edward answered, almost as dangerously as the older guy.

The bold guy moved fast and grabbed Ed's right arm recklessly, pulling back the sleeve of Edward's jacket, revealing the artificial metal arm.

And the bold guy suddenly smiled. Viciously. "See this, folks? This kid is a cripple. No wonder why he lost his mind."

The crowd mumbled and stared, some of them laughed.

Edward pulled himself free and held up his right arm after removing the glove which had hidden his metal fingers. He circled around, holding his hand up for everyone to see with a resolute look. "My world is similar to yours, but this is the reason why it is yet so different. In my world, no one would humiliate me for this." He staggered a little, feeling dizzy and a painful throbbing in his head from the intake of beer and whiskey.

Alfons finally reached him and took a hold of his shoulders. "Come on, buddy. It's time to go home." Don't listen to them.

Without looking at the others, he led Edward away from the crowd towards the door.

Then the bold guy called out for him.

He turned, still holding Edward.

"It's Heiderich, right? I don't know where you found this one, but he needs help. You should consider that."

Alfons didn't answer and pretended not to hear the last part that was shouted out after them.

"A cripple doesn't belong with us Germans!"

--

"There are stars outside," Edward gazed up while they strolled down the dark street in Munich. It was a chilly night in October, but it felt like the winter was coming already. Alfons took care of most of the walking, having Edward's human arm draped over his shoulder, dragging most of his weight. Although, he secretly didn't mind the chance to hold Edward.

"Look!" Edward pointed, forcing Alfons to slow down. Edward smiled a thin smile. "I've always believed that it is the same sky as in my world."

"You should button up your coat properly, or you'll get sick," Alfons commented.

Edward brushed it off. "You worry too much. I never even get sick in this world."

Alfons narrowed. Why was Edward always talking that way? It was starting to freak him out. Still, he wanted to understand.

"My world and your world," Edward said. "It's the same stars. And the same moon. What do you think, Alfons?"

"Yeah, probably," Alfons said dully. He hadn't meant for his reply to sound that way, and hoped Edward didn't notice.

"That's one of the reasons why I got interested in astronomy. It isn't at all like alchemy, but it is just as interesting."

"Sure Edward."

Oblivious to his tone, Edward continued. "I will never give up on finding a way to go back. I will... definitely go back someday."

Alfons didn't know what to reply to that.

Edward gazed at his roommate with his golden coloured eyes, and the silence remained until they were back inside their small apartment close to the centre of the city.

Alfons didn't let go of his roommate until they reached Ed's room. Edward fell asleep momentarily, lying half across the bed with all his clothes on.

Alfons lingered for a moment, shaking his head with a small smile. "You're a weird one, you know that right?" He bent down and gently dragged off Edward's shoes. Then he threw his cover over him.

Subsequently he went to his own bed, just to find himself unable to sleep. He stared up at the ceiling, exploring the old spots on the walls with his eyes. They had found a quite decent apartment some months ago when they had both jumped off their school year. It was as expensive as they could allow themselves to afford. At least it had two bedrooms, hot water and lights, and the window in his bedroom viewed the street from the 3rd floor.

In contrary to Edward, Alfons liked the sound of the city. Liked the sound of the motors, cars driving past and the people walking hastily by for their daily shopping. Edward's bedroom was on the other side of the house. His window pointed down at a silent backyard with no traffic.

Alfons liked cars and enjoyed seeing them passing by. He had decided to put away some of the money he earned at the rocket factory, to buy his own. But of course he liked rockets better. When he first met Edward, they found themselves both interested in rockets and astronomy. It led to discussions, revealing of some of their dreams, which led to a friendship. After studying together for a year, they decided to come to Munich together.

Edward had a great ability to calculate and analyze work in his head. Alfons had joined a rocket building team, led by an old friend of his father. Shortly after he introduced Edward to his colleges at the rocket factory; they were all pleased to hire him. Edward always did a great job, and was good at drawing fresh sketches of rockets and new ideas.

The sponsors were usually fond of Edward's ideas, and thanks to him, they had enough money to continue their work.

The problem was certain issues he had. Edward rarely committed himself with other people, or talked about himself (except when he was drunk and liked the attention, which usually led people to think he was nuts). His favourite hobby was to sit by himself and read. Edward never asked questions. Edward never answered questions. He was just there, watching the world pass by. But still, Alfons couldn't help but simply like everything about Edward, no matter what other people said behind his back.

Alfons closed his eyes with a slight smile, and kept them close until he finally dozed off, totally exhausted.

--

The next morning, Edward opened his eyelids to the bright autumn light through the window. He hadn't taken the time or money to buy curtains. He sat up drowsily, feeling a small aching pain in his head. He agreed with himself that he could've been without those last cups of whiskey. His throat still burned, and the dizziness made it hard to focus on the floor on his way to the bathroom.

His long blond hair hung loosely by his shoulders. He put bound it up in the usual ponytail and threw some water in his face to wipe of the worst traces of drowsiness and hangover.

Alfons was still asleep when Edward disappeared out the door.

Down under, Edward found a humming Gracia Schmidt, working with a bouquet of tulips in her flower shop. She was the house owner. Edward barely ever spoke to her. She reminded him too much of his own world. But neither was he impolite towards her. She was always smiling and kind to him, since Edward had already known from the moment he first saw her that it was in her nature.

"Good morning, Edward," she said cheerfully. "Did you have fun last night?"

Edward blushed slightly. "I guess… I'm sorry we were coming in late. I hope we didn't wake you."

She laughed. "Oh, no. I just spoke to Maes, he tells all kinds of gossip."

Edward chuckled apprehensively.

"By the way, he wanted to talk to you about some organization party for youth. It's in the same party he's in with the guys. You should speak to him about it. They do a lot of fun stuff together."

"Nah, I don't know. I'm usually too busy to think of anything else than rockets." Edward went fast forward to prevent her from starting to talk about something else. "Have a good day, Miss Gracia."

"You too, Edward!"

Edward went out of the flower shop in a quick pace. In his time off he usually stuck by the library to read. He had still a lot to learn about this world's history and technology within electronics and machines. Not to mention the wars.

The wars interested him, especially The Great War. Some people went around in fear of a new one. And the main guilt rested on Germany, the country that had become his home. Sometimes he had tried to talk to Alfons about it, but his roommate became irritated over the subject, saying that even if Germany made a mistake, it was good intentions behind it and that he would do everything he could to make Germany rise proudly again - by building high technologically advanced rockets.

Edward assumed it was a hard subject for Alfons because he lost his father in that war. Alfons would probably not think of his death as for nothing.

Rockets interested Edward because he had a theory. If he went inside a rocket and flew up in the sky, maybe he would somehow be closer to his own world. He wasn't sure. But he would try anything. He had read a lot about airplanes. Even piloted a small one himself. His father had arranged it for him. He had taken private lessons for one month almost right after he came to London. He could've flown forever if he had had a plane of his own.

Edward walked in deep thought, and crossed the street on his way to the library.

"Oi, Edward!"

Edward turned his head to the familiar voice, and made a short gasp of the familiarity. Only for a second, he almost forgot that it wasn't him. He could never really get used to the parallels…

"Roy," he said, smiling sheepishly.

The man smiled warmly back at him and waved. The raven hair and dark eyes shining in the morning light. "How are you today, Ed?"

Edward walked to him, hands pushed into his pockets. "I'm fine. You?"

He nodded. "Good, for now. Someone broke my window last night, but luckily they didn't try to break in or anything."

"Wah," Edward said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Roy laughed. "No need to worry. Just a shame that bastard got away."

Edward nodded. "If I hear anything I'll…"

"Nah, don't think about it. The less people you talk to about me, the better."

"Why?"

Roy shook his head. "It's for your own good, Edward. Don't think about it. I have to get inside now. Stay out of trouble."

Edward gave him a small smile. "Says who."

Roy beamed at him. "Later."

Edward stared after him as he went inside his house. The exact copy of Colonel Roy Mustang. He sighed and turned away. It wasn't the same person, he knew that. He was much more cheerful and less officious. But still, he couldn't help thinking about the other world's Roy Mustang. About their secret. How his skin had felt. How his lips had tasted like. How he had felt while just being close to him.

Edward shook his head. Stupid…

He wondered what this world's Roy had talked about though. Clearly he had some enemies. He speculated faintly on why. This world's Roy was a nice guy. Edward decided he would stick up for him if he heard anything about the window.

"Edward!"

He was snatched out of his thoughts, as a hand tightened around his shoulder. He turned around abruptly and stared right into a uniformed officer. Maes Hughes.

"Hello, sir," he said politely. And again he was reminded of old people he used to know, how small and similar these two worlds were. He tried not to think of the old Maes Hughes he had known.

"I just wanted to check upon you. Are you all right? I heard that one of the guys gave you a hard time last night."

"It wasn't any near death-experience, I'm okay," Edward said.

Hughes laughed heartily. "Yeah, I suppose so." His voice changed into a serious manner. "But perhaps you should slow down on your odd stories out in the open, Edward. You have a great imagination, but you should think about what other people think of you."

Edward's golden eyes narrowed as he backed away a few steps, pretending to be in a hurry. "No need to concern yourself with me, sir." He turned to go, but Officer Hughes followed beside him.

"I can tell you've been through a lot of grim things, Edward," he continued. "That's why I was thinking you'd like the youth organization of the party I'm in. Meet new people and have fun, maybe you'll even meet a girl." His enthusiastic babble never ended.

Edward continued walking without an answer.

"The president of the party is a great man. He'll give this country a lot of significance in the future, I'm sure."

"Yeah, that's nice," Edward said.

Hughes stopped him, almost with force, and Edward halted unwillingly.

"Come on, just one meeting. I swear you'll like it."

"Maybe."

"Great! Be there tonight at seven."

Edward nodded, wondering what the hell he had agreed himself into.

When Edward approached the library, the first which drew his attention was today's newspaper. The front page was covered by a picture of a man, and a quote as the headline:

"I will bring glory days back to Germany"

Edward scanned through the article inside the paper. He was the leader of the NSDAP, The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, who intended to remake Germanys place on the map as a powerful nation. Inside was also a photograph of some of the highest members of the party. They stood next to each other in four rows, smiling and wore a special uniform. Maes Hughes was one of them. Edward lay the newspaper down.

The NSDAP was a powerful party with many members. But Edward didn't feel that he belonged as one of them. He was still a stranger, even though he had been here for a while. Most of the time, he thought about new ways to succeed in his return to his own world. Although he cared about this world too, he would do whatever it takes to come back to his brother. If he was still alive…

He sat down in a deep sofa with a book about German inventions through the history, and gave himself into the content of it.

--

A couple of hours later he found Alfons in the kitchen in their small apartment. Alfons didn't say hi, being busy taking the dishes from the weekend. He looked tired and pale.

Edward felt slightly bad for having left his roommate with the mess. But it hadn't been his intention. He had figured Alfons would wait for him to get back so he could help.

Edward stepped silently into the kitchen and started drying up the dripping glasses with a towel. The prosthetic arm had caused him to drop and break some glasses during the stay, but he had started to get used to it. Even if this world didn't have the usual technology for metal limbs he had been used to in the other world, he was as capable of doing things as any other person.

"You practically passed out last night, Edward," Alfons finally said, his voice slightly rusty. "You should slow down."

"Don't worry, Al, you know I'm not stupid." Edward didn't realize his mistake before after the words had slipped out.

Alfons snapped. "Don't call me that. I'm not your brother."

Edward sighed deep. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. If you only knew how much you look like him."

Alfons shook his head and continued to wash some forks and knives.

"I've told you before," Edward said in a low voice. "Your world and my world, they're parallel worlds. They're different, but they're similar. Same goes with the people in them. Each person on both sides has someone they look like, like a parallel person. Even some of the names are exactly the same. You're like my brother, but I know you're two completely different people. In my world there was another Maes Hughes. He wasn't a police officer like here, but he was in the military. Unfortunately he died. But every time I talk with Officer Hughes, I recognize a little of the Maes Hughes I used to know in my world."

Alfons' head started to spin of all the information.

"I came here--"

"…through a big Gate, yeah," Alfons interrupted half-heartedly. "In exchange for your brother."

A loud crack made Alfons jump, and he looked at Edward for the first time since he came into the room. The bits of glass fell on the floor from Edward's metal hand. He had squeezed it to pieces.

"You don't believe me," Edward stated.

Alfons stared at him; for once he was out of words. Yes, Edward was right. He didn't believe him. But neither did he want to believe that Edward was mad. Edward was brilliant. A genius. Why would he lie? But how could all of this be possible? Alfons was confused.

Edward threw the towel down on the worktop and walked in a quick pace out the door. Some seconds later he heard Edward's bedroom door swing shut with a slam.

Alfons coughed. He felt like he had just betrayed his best friend. As a matter of fact, Edward was his best friend. Alfons didn't quite understand it, but whatever Edward believed; he wished he could believe the same. So they could have some more in common. He cared a lot about Edward, more than he wanted to show or even admit to himself.

Alfons made a decision, dried off the water and soap of his hands, and went to face Edward's bedroom door.

"Edward." He knocked twice. "Can I come in?"

No answer.

Alfons carefully opened the door, feeling a slight relief that it wasn't locked, and found Edward pouring himself a glass of whiskey with a shivering hand.

"Come on," Alfons said. "You got work tomorrow." He stepped in front of him, removed the glass and put it on Edward's desk.

Edward didn't look at him. "If I drink, I can remember more of my world."

"But you forget what you have here," Alfons said slowly. "You end up totally lost in your own imagination! Why do you keep telling people about something that doesn't exist?" He didn't mean to be so harsh. But what was he suppose to do? If Edward didn't understand common sense, he'd just had to make him.

"You're becoming like them," Edward said.

"Like who?"

"Everyone else!" Edward snapped. Then he just shook his head. "You think I don't know what other people say about me? What they believe? And that the only reason I got that job is because I'm good at math and are friends with you?"

Alfons stammered. "N-no, it's not…" Edward was clearly not as unaware of the deeds around him as he seemed, but putting it that way was still an exaggeration.

"They think I'm crazy, and call me a cripple," Edward continued and stood up to get his whiskey. "That's what I am here. They're probably just waiting for me to do something wrong, so they can put me into a hospital." He reached to snatch his glass, but Alfons stopped his arm.

"Edward, that's not true. People care about you," Alfons said helplessly.

Edward still didn't seem to listen to him. He shoved back Alfons' hand, and held up his own metal hand, opening and closing his metal fingers. "I lost my arm and leg when I was 11 years old. All the time from that moment and until I came here, I tried to find a way to get my limbs back, wearing metal instead." He sat back down on the bed, imperturbably swallowing his whiskey. "It was possible to get my real limbs back with alchemy. Right before I came here… my brother did it. He made me normal. I almost died, and he saved me." Edward smiled softly before he continued. "But he had to sacrifice himself to do it. I realized that when I woke up. And I couldn't live with that. So I brought him back, sacrificing myself in exchange. You always need something of equal value to sacrifice, to be able to create something in alchemy. So, me for my brother. I should have died. But instead I came to this world." He sighed. Why did he always want to tell Alfons about these things when he silently knew that it was like blasphemy in his world to actually believe a word of it?

Alfons looked down at his feet. This was unbelievable. But incredible too. Who would have an imagination like that and not be a writer or something. He couldn't understand it. But he didn't want to give up. He had to give Edward a chance. He was his friend. And he cared about him.

Alfons sighed deeply. "Can you… prove it?"

Edward gazed at him for the first time with his big, golden eyes. "What did you say?"

"Can you prove it to me, Edward?" Alfons repeated and looked up. "I want to believe you. But I need proof."

Edward sighed, surprised but happy that Alfons at least tried. "I would gladly prove it if I could." He fell silent for a while. "I know my word isn't enough. But I can tell… when I came to the Gate and got pulled inside it, it was like my head got stuffed with tons of information about this world. All knowledge that has been discovered. I saw the truth."

Alfons just stared at him. "You confuse me."

"Sometimes, I suddenly remember parts of that knowledge, things about this world a normal person wouldn't possibly know by heart. Like, the surface of the earth equals 510,072,000 km² where 148,940,000 km² or 29.2 percent is land and 361,132,000 km² or 70.8 percent is water. The mass of the earth is composed mostly of 32.1 percent iron, 30.1 percent oxygen, 15.1 percent silicon, 13.9 percent magnesium, 2.9 percent sulfu…"

"Right, right!" Alfons interrupted as his head started to spin of all the numbers. "I get it."

Edward continued. "You get it? How much time do you think a normal person needs to learn a foreign language? Fluently. Like, for a British person to learn German?"

Alfons shrugged. "3 or 4 years perhaps…?"

Edward nodded. "I easily learned how to speak English and German perfectly, barely a few weeks after I got here. And I took the driver's licence and I was able to fly an airplane shortly after that."

Alfons shrugged. "You are a fast learner…"

Edward snorted. "I think I got a little help from the Gate. Even though I didn't know about it at first."

Alfons had to admit it was very rare for someone to learn two languages that fast. "So… what language did you use to speak?"

"Amestrian," Edward said simply. He slid off his bed and curved down on the floor. He reached under his bed and grabbed a huge stock of papers.

Alfons' blue eyes narrowed. Even if the word "Amestrian" didn't ring any bells, he could tell the papers were drawings of circles; very complicated circles. It was lots of scribbles, lines and other symbols inside them.

"What is that?" Alfons asked.

"It's not just any kind of art," Edward said solemnly. "This one is a simple transmutation circle in alchemy." The circle he showed up had two circles inside each other and triangles crossing each other inside the middle circle. "It is used for common transformations. For example, if you gather all the pieces of glass I just broke, I'd be able to put them back together again as long as the mass of the object is the same. In your world, you'd just call it magic."

Alfons nodded hesitantly. It reminded him of ancient witch magic. Scary.

Edward found a new drawing. It was one of the complicated ones. "This array is used to perform human transmutation." The array had lines and drawings everywhere inside and outside of it. Alfons got dizzy watching all the lines.

"I know this doesn't prove anything," Edward said. "But… I want to know if I can find a way to open the gate again, go through it, and come home. I could do it with an array like this, it just have to be big enough. The biggest problem is just that alchemy doesn't work in this world."

Deep inside Alfons' heart, he refused to let Edward down, no matter how thin his proof was. "Then how will you do it?"

"I'll keep reading until I find something. And maybe someone else in this world knows about alchemy. I can't trust anyone to be willing to help me, but I will try to figure out something."

"What about your father?" Alfons asked. He had met Edward's father once. One of the first times he met Edward, he had been together with his father since he had been a Professor at the University.

"I don't know if he'll ever show up again. He came here by a mistake too, long before I did, and hasn't found any ways to get back. My father was a famous alchemist in my world when I was a child. My mother used to say that I had his talent." Edward smiled faintly to himself.

Edward's father, Hohenheim, was out there somewhere. Edward had told him he just disappeared one day, leaving no messages. Occasionally he sent Edward a huge amount of money with a short letter, not telling much. But Edward didn't seem bothered by it. He had already grown up without his father.

Alfons was silent for a while. Then he made another decision inside. "I want to help you."

Edward stared at him like in shock. "What? Alfons…"

"If there is anything I can do I will do it, to help you come home." Alfons smiled. His feelings were kind of mixed up by all. But thinking rationally he only wanted the best for Edward, even if that would mean that Edward would leave him someday. The real question was who of them who would leave this world first...

Edward smiled happily at him, unknowing of his grim thoughts. "Thank you, Alfons. Thank you for not thinking that I'm crazy."

Alfons let out a laugh, actually feeling rather excited. Especially because of the new sparkle in Edward's eyes. It made Alfons feel warm inside. They had a secret that no one else would ever know of.

He shook his head. "Only a genius could come up with something like this," he said jokingly.

Edward gave him a friendly push on his shoulder.

Before Alfons could say anything more, the coughing started again. His chest ached.

Edward's bright eyes narrowed. "Hey, are you all right?"

Alfons stood up, still coughing hard. "Yeah… Excuse me." He went out for the bathroom, clutching his palm to his mouth.

Edward gave him a worried look when he came back a moment later. "You look pale. Are you catching a cold again?"

Alfons smiled and waved his hand like it was nothing. "Probably, but it'll be fine."

--

All evening the two boys sat down together, writing down similarities and differences between the two worlds. Edward found himself delighted over how much interest Alfons finally showed the subject. And he realized that even though he had been friends with Alfons for almost two years, he had always felt quite lonely. He had never had someone to talk to about his inner thoughts, except his father. But he had never been around that much.

"The biggest difference," Edward said, "is that this world has an advanced technology of machinery instead of the art of alchemy. Until I came here, I had never seen machines fly in the sky."

"But you have cars in your world?" Alfons asked. He had started to grow more and more interested in the other world.

Edward nodded. "Yeah. Cars, trains, boats. But no airplanes or helicopters. Or rockets…" He pulled up the end of the pants on his left leg, revealing the metal prosthetic leg. "Although, we have better technology considering artificial limbs. In my world I had a mechanic who could make metal arms and legs equally light and functioning as normal ones. This one isn't that good, but if it wasn't for my father who made this, I'd probably be living in a wheel chair."

"Yeah," Alfons replied in amazement. "It's incredible."

After some thinking, Edward concluded that the biggest similarity was the people.

"People here, and people over there, are practically the same," he said. "Even though the names aren't always the same or the surroundings, people are people. Lots of them have the same faces." Edward fell silent for some seconds. "And even though the places are different, Munich reminds me somehow of Central."

Alfons had fallen into thoughtfulness, and hadn't even heard the last thing Edward had said. He finally said: "Your brother… and me. Do you see him when you look at me?"

Edward looked at him carefully, his eyes a tad wider of the question. Like he was afraid to say the wrong thing. "You only look like him on the outside, that's all. I know you're not him."

Alfons nodded. "All this is kind of scary. No one else would believe it."

Edward stared down at his notes. "That's a huge difference," he said silently. "In my world, I think at least some people would've believed it."

"I do," Alfons said. "At least I want to believe it." He leaned forward to read Edward's notes, his hand lightly brushing over Edward's.

Edward looked intently at him for a moment, before he dropped his papers. Before Alfons could react, Edward had cupped his face in his palms and pressed his lips against his, kissing him almost vigorously. He didn't even know why. Everything else but Alfons seemed suddenly very insignificant.