Author's note: This is a one-shot about Ed and Al deciding to begin their travels. Hope you enjoy it!
(disclaimer: I do not own fullmetal alchemist, or fullmetal alchemist brotherhood.)
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Alphonse layed in bed, tiredness tugging at him, but he couldn't sleep. Images of Nina Tucker raced through his head.
We couldn't save her… what if there was a way to save her but we didn't know… if there are different types of alchemy… maybe something that's impossible with Amestrian alchemy is possible with a different kind of alchemy.
At last, around three o'clock in the morning, Al couldn't stay awake anymore, even if he wanted to, and sleep engulfed him.
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Although Ed enjoyed being able to relax and live a normal life, he was getting restless and felt the need to do something. It had been about a year and a half since he and Al had returned to Resembool, and for the first time since before their mom had died their lives were normal. They weren't constantly on the move, having people trying to murder them, or trying to save an entire country. It just didn't feel right staying in one place, always knowing what was happening next. He wanted to get back out into the world and learn more about it, see more, meet new people, he just wasn't cut out for a simple life and nor was Al.
Ed was sitting at the kitchen table reading an alchemy book and Winry was in the kitchen making breakfast. A few minutes ago Al had walked into the room looking like he had barely slept the entire night. He had been looking more and more fatigued over the past few days, and Ed silently wondered what had been keeping him up, though he thought he had a pretty good guess.
While they were eating, Winry spoke up before Ed could, asking Al why he had been looking so tired lately.
"Is it really that obvious?" Al asked
"You only look like a zombie walking in here every morning." Ed said flatly
"Oh… I haven't been able to fall asleep recently that's all."
"Yeah but why?" Winry asked sounding concerned.
Al just shook his head, stood up, and walked towards the door.
"I'm going for a walk." He said and walked out without waiting for a response.
"Al!" Winry called as she got up to follow him, but Ed grabbed her arm
"Winry wait." Ed said calmly. "If he doesn't want to talk he's not going to."
"But…" Winry said looking over at the door
"If he doesn't come back soon we can go find him, but he obviously doesn't want to be bothered right now."
"Alright, but you're gonna tell me what you know because I know that you know something Edward, got it?" She said firmly
"Ok, Ok, I might have some clue what's bothering him." Ed said throwing his hands up in surrender.
They went into the living room and Winry sat down on a chair crossing her arms and her legs, while Ed sat down on the couch.
"Well Ed?"
"Just to let you know you wont like what you hear." Ed warned her.
"I don't care." She said.
"Alright just don't say I didn't warn you."
"I won't. Now just tell me."
"Back when Al and I had just finished up the case in Liore, the Colonel introduced us to another state alchemist who specialized in bio-alchemy to see if he had any information to help us get out bodies back." Ed started.
"Why did the Colonel do that?" Winry asked.
"He said it was to repay use for our work in Liore."
"Ok, who was this state alchemist?"
Ed grimaced as he told her "His name was Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life alchemist."
"I've never heard of him before." Winry said
"He wasn't well known and the military covered up most of what happened."
"What did happen?"
"If you would stop asking questions and let me continue you'd find out."
"Ok, ok."
"Anyway he had a whole library of book on bio-alchemy that Al and I started going through, that is until Shou Tucker's daughter Nina and her dog Alexander came in and Al started playing with them. We ended up not getting much done that day or the day after." Ed's expression became sullen and his voice got "quiet, "The third day we got there and no one answered the door so we walked in, after looking everywhere we found Shou Tucker in his study, but Nina and her dog weren't there." at this point Ed was struggling to continue.
"Wh.. what happened Ed?" Winry asked slowly
"Shou Tucker had accomplished what he had been trying to for year… he created a talking chimera… he had created one two years before to earn his state certification and said his wife and run out on him around the same time. It only took me a few minutes to realize what he had done… He had used his wife to create a talking chimera the first time, and then he had gone as far as to use his own daughter and her dog just to keep his certification!"
"That's… horrible.." Winry said.
"There wasn't any was to turn her back into her original form. This was around the time Scar started going after state alchemists, he went after Tucker and killed him along with Nina… We couldn't do anything for her, she was turned into a chimera and then killed, and there was nothing we could do." Ed just sat there staring at the ground.
"You think that's what's bothering Al?"
"He says her name in his sleep, I guess he feels like there must have been something we could have done to fix her since we were able to get his body back."
"We need to go find him." Winry said standing up.
"I told you, if he left he wants to be alone."
"Too bad, I'm going anyway and so are you."
Ed looked up her then sighed, "alright fine we can go look for him."
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Al sat with his back against a tree and his head down, mentally arguing with himself.
It wasn't your fault there was nothing you could do!
But what if there was something…
No one in Amestris knows of a way!
She didn't need to die that way…
There was no way to save her!
I haven't seen enough to know that...
This continued going back and forth inside of Al's head. After several minutes of this Al heard footsteps coming towards him. When he looked up he saw Ed and Winry standing there in front of him. Al just looked at them both desperately, silently asking them for reassurance. Winry knelt down next to him and hugged him tightly while Ed sat down on his other side. They sat there silently until Ed spoke up a few minutes later.
"You're thinking about Nina aren't you Al."
Al looked at him still with a worried look but also surprised now, "How did you kn…"
"It's pretty obvious Al." Ed said cutting him off.
"Oh… sorry…" Al said.
"You don't need to apologize, but I would like to know why you didn't tell us what was wrong." Ed aid while Winry nodded slowly.
"Winry doesn't kn…"
"Ed told me what happened Al." this time Winry cut him off.
"So why didn't you say anything Al?" Ed asked.
"I.. It's just that…" Al sighed, "It all happened two years ago, I didn't want to burden Winry with knowing about it all, or remind you of it since we moved on from it a long time ago…" Al finished and there was complete silence besides the cool breeze blowing through the trees, and the chirping of a few birds.
Finally Winry spoke up, "You don't need to worry about me, I'd rather carry the burden with you than watch you struggle on your own, and that goes for both of you." she said looking at Ed who she was almost surprised to see giving her a nod.
"Also Al, even I moved on from it doesn't mean I forgot about it, but I couldn't let it prevent me from moving forward so that we could find some way to prevent something like this from happening again."
"It's ok to let us know when something's bothering you Al." Winry said softly.
"I just can't help but wonder what if there was some way to save her.." Al said almost too quietly to hear.
"Alphonse! You know as well as I do that there was nothing we could do, we couldn't have know what was going to happen and prepare for it, nor could we have found a way to change her back anywhere in Amestris. Even if there is some way out there in the world, we had no chance of finding it in time to save her."
Al looked down at the ground, then said "I right I'm just being dumb."
"It's not dumb to grieve." Winry started.
"But it is dumb to waste time wondering what you could've done differently." Ed finished for her.
"Thank you… both of you." Al said.
They sat there for awhile in silence until Winry pointed out that they should probably head home before they froze out there.
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A couple days later, Al was standing behind a chair and the desk in his and Ed's room while Ed sat in the chair with a map spread out in front of him.
"So, we need to learn all there is to know about all types of alchemy in order to make sure that if there's ever another tragedy like the one that befell Nina, we will be able to prevent or reverse it, or if nothing else know for an absolute fact that we tried everything we could." Ed said, recapping what they had discussed so far.
"Right!' Al said.
"Alright then," Ed said rubbing his hands together, "All that's left is deciding which one of us is going where."
"It would make most sense to split it east and west so that we don't both have to cross the desert." Al pointed out.
"Yeah." Ed agreed "I assume you'll be taking the east, Alphonse?" Ed said giving Al a look.
"Why would you assume that?" Al asked although he guessed what Ed would say.
"Well I know you've been in touch with a certain Xingese princess recently."
Of course I'd love to go visit Mei and learn alchestery in Xing and then travel around the rest of the east. Al thought.
Before Al could say anything Ed continued. "Besides, that desert is way too hot to be traveling in with and automail leg, and speaking of my leg it would probably be better if I stayed closer to here incase I need it repaired."
"Alright then, I'll take thee." Al said, then added "And you can stay here closer to Winry."
Ed face turned slightly pink, "Yeah, yeah, it'll also be beneficial for you to take the east since you can actually learn alkahestry and whatever other alchemy is over there. You know since all I can do is research the alchemy in the west."
"Right." Al said.
Just then they heard a knock on their door and Winry poked her head in, "dinner is ready you two."
"Ok we're coming." Ed said.
While they were eating Ed and Al explained their plans to Winry.
"Well if you're going to be gone for awhile I should probably upgrade you leg a bit." She said when they had finished explaining everything to her.
"Is that really necessary?" Ed asked
"No, but it wouldn't hurt to fix it up a bit, also it would make more sense to wait until spring to leave, and if Al is crossing the desert, he should be prepared and also let Ling know he's coming."
"Alright then, we'll wait until spring, you've upgraded my leg, and Al has made all of his preparations." Ed said "Then we'll head of into the world."
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Six months later, Al stood in front of the door, after saying goodbye to Ed, Winry, and granny, ready to head off to central before going to Xing. Ed's train wasn't until the next day. Al was heading to Central to visit some friends, and then tomorrow he would get on a train that would take him as far east as it can go and then he'd cross the desert on foot.
"Well I'm off!" Al said before turning and walking out the door.
Once he had gone Ed and WInry both went into the living room and each started reading a book since there wasn't really anything else to do. The day dragged on with neither of them moved from where they were sitting across from each other much. Finally since it was getting late Ed set down the book and stood up.
"I'm heading to bed now Winry." he said.
"K, make sure you have everything packed so that you're not rushing in the morning." she said looking up from her book.
"Yeah, sure." he said only half listening.
Winry sighed before standing up and following him upstairs. In reality Ed had barely even started packing, but felt that he would have plenty of time in the morning.
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The next morning Ed woke up to Winry pounding on his door.
"Ed! Get up! We have to get going in ten minutes!"
Ed shot out of bed and quickly got dressed.
"I'm coming!" he called while stuffing everything he needed in his suitcase.
Ed moved as fast as he could, running down the stairs as fast as he could and practically inhaling his breakfast. Somehow within ten minutes he was ready to go and was walking out of the door with WInry. During most of the walk there, Winry nagged Ed, making sure that he had everything he needed and reminding him to be careful especially since he couldn't use alchemy anymore. Ed was mostly ignoring her since he was lost in his own thought.
I want to tell Winry how I feel, but this is driving me insane! I don't know what to say or how she'll react. I don't even know if she feels the same way! What if she thinks I'm joking, or what if she just turns me down, I'll look like a complete moron! But I have no idea when I'll be back so I need to tell her how I feel, but geez why does this have to be so hard!
He continued thinking it over, in the end he decided that he would just ask her to give him half of her life in exchange for half of his.
Yeah that'll work, as long as she says yes… but if she doesn't this will be a nightmare, except in real life!
They arrived at the train station and they sat down. Winry started reminding him off all the things he needed to do in order to maintain his leg, when they heard the train whistle. Winry stood up.
"There's your train!"
Well, it's now or never! Ed thought with a grimace. I really hope this works...
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And we all know what happens next! :D
Author's note: I hope you liked it and I did a good job portraying Ed's thoughts. Please review and let me know if there's anything I need to fix or if there's anything I need to do differently in the future.