A/N: Heylo! Sorry for being inactive for so long! This is another FMA story. This time it's in honor of FMA Day, October 3rd! This follows the first series.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist!
~FMA~FMA~FMA~FMA~
Remember
Alphonse Elric closed the fridge in a huff. "Brother?"
"Yeah?" Edward Elric asked from his seat at the table, reading the newspaper and taking a sip of his coffee. He had developed a real taste for coffee lately. He didn't know why.
"We don't have any more of those muffins left. I thought you said you bought some more." Al had a habit of scolding his brother, despite their obvious age difference.
"I did. You're just not looking hard enough," Ed said, without looking up from the newspaper.
Al checked again. Nothing.
"I checked at least seven times, Brother. Still nothing."
"Are you looking in the fridge?"
"Yes," Al said, quite agitated at the fact that his brother was still unbelievably lazy, even after all these years.
"The reason you can't find it is because you're not looking in the right place," Ed said, like it was nothing.
"Then where should I be looking?" Al asked, the agitation still going strong.
"The pantry," Ed said, as if it were the most obvious answer in the entire world.
Al, though still annoyed at Ed, checked the pantry. Sure enough, Al's muffins were there. Just like Ed and coffee, Al had developed a taste for nearly everything, especially muffins. Though, once he got food poisoning off of Brussels sprouts. Al made it through the next couple of days okay (which mainly consisted of him developed a slight fever and hurling his guts out, while Ed calmly comforted him), but his taste of Brussels sprouts was stained forever.
Al sat down at the table with his muffins and milk, actually, correction: soy milk. Al had found it in the store one day and introduced his brother to it. Now, soy milk was the only kind of "milk" that Ed would allow in the apartment.
Minutes passed and Al was done with his snack and walked back to his room. The muffins were delicious, as always, but the silence during that time was unbearable.
The past few months were dedicated to settling in here in Munich. But during the past few days, Edward had become unbearably distant.
Al had learned to live with it, and so far, he had been okay with it. He had just taken it as Edward's mind finally maturing to its highest potential. However, Al knew better. Ed had grown up long before his time. He was already mature. And Al knew that.
So that wasn't it.
Yesterday had been Mother's Day. Since Trisha had died years before, the two had merely gone to the cemetery to visit Alfons's grave and say a little prayer to him, their father, and most of all, Trisha, their mother. The rest of the day was dedicated to telling stories about their mother.
And then, it hit him like a million bricks falling into a smooth lake.
Edward missed their mother. More specifically, Edward Elric was homesick.
Al heard Edward crying at night sometimes. Since Al sometimes got up for a drink of water in the middle of the night, he could clearly hear Ed's whimpering. Al wanted to go in and comfort his brother, but quickly remembered that Ed was only crying because he thought that his little brother was asleep.
Al reached the door to his room, but decided not to go in. Instead, he turned around and retraced his steps to Ed's room.
He stopped at the door and quickly glanced at the kitchen to see if Ed was still at the kitchen table. He was, so Al silently opened the door.
Edward's room was surprisingly neat. His dirty clothes were in the hamper and his clean clothes in his drawers and coats in his closet. His bed was made and the lights were all off, except the desk lamp. Al turned to leave, but something on the desk that glimmered in the lamp light caught his eye.
He slowly crossed the room to what it was that was glimmering and saw what he last expected to see. He thought he lost that in Liore, but he remembered Roy Mustang giving it to Winry. She must have given it to Ed when she was fitting with new automail back in Amestris.
It was Ed's old military pocket watch, complete with the hexagon and the lion design on the cover.
Al picked it up and opened it. Surprisingly enough, he found a message inside. Al softly smiled and crossed the room back to the door, and quickly hurried back to the kitchen.
"Brother?" Al softly said, trying to softly catch his breath.
"Yeah?" Al didn't like that answer. More importantly, he didn't like the way Ed sounded. Ed sounded tired, exhausted, old before his time.
"I have something for you."
"What is it?"
"Hold out your hand."
Edward did so, still without looking up.
"Here," Al said, placing the watch in Ed's hand. "Open it up and read it."
In Ed's perspective, the object that Al had placed in his hands felt vaguely familiar. But he couldn't remember where.
When he brought it in front of his face, he knew why. Al had found his old pocket watch.
Edward opened it up and read the message that he himself had written years before.
Don't forget 3 Oct. 11.
But then Ed remembered. He told Winry something years before.
'Aw, hell. No one's seen that darned thing, not even Al…'
What Al was trying to tell him made sense now.
Ed wasn't only hurting himself. He was hurting Al more. His distant attitude was causing pain for Al more than it was causing for him.
He wrote than message in there for a reason. He didn't want to forget what they did and what they did and the price they paid to fix it. He didn't want to forget the cost of bring Al back to life. He didn't want to forget the pain he felt by being separated from Al for three years.
Because no matter what…
"Al?"
No matter the situation…
"Yes, Brother?"
No matter the price they had to pay…
Ed turned to face his brother, send Al a gentle smile. "Let's find a way home, okay?"
No matter the age difference…
Alphonse smiled back and nodded. "Of course."
The two would always be by each other's side.
They would never be alone.
Yet, to think, that Ed still had that darned watch…
~FMA~FMA~FMA~FMA~
A/N: So? What do you think? Review please! Or favorite. This was mainly intended as a one shot.