Ichigo loved the sound that the waves made as they brushed over the sand. The gentle "whoosh....... whoosh......." soothed her. She smiled, closed her eyes, and began singing the words of a lullaby as old as the earth softly to herself. The waves seemed to slow themselves to the tempo of her song. She finished on a note that made the sand itself tremble with happiness. She smiled and opened her eyes, noting how dark it had become so suddenly. She realised that the quiet pounding she could hear was not, in fact, the waves hitting the shore; it was footsteps, and a set that were as familiar to her as her own breathing. She sighed and stood up to greet the intruder that was running over the dunes toward her.

"ICHIGO!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?!?!?!? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN CENTRAL!!!!!!!"

The boy skidded to a stop in front of her, panting hard.

"Good to see you too, Edo-Kun~" she chirped. The boy, who was still trying to regain his breath, shot her a glare from under his long, plaited blond hair.

"I was just about to come back; I was saying hi to mom and dad. I've not seen them in a while; I've missed them.... This place reminds me of them in a lot of ways. It's so beautiful, you know? I think I could stay here forever... as long as you were with me." She smiled, closed her eyes and sniffed the air delicately; what was left of the boy's bad humor dissipated.

"Well, some warning that you were going away might have been nice," he grumbled, "other than the 'byebye!" you count as a warning!!!"

She laughed. "If I always told you where I was going, Edo-kun, the world would be a much less interesting place." She frowned. "How did you find me here, anyways?"

He grinned and moved toward her until their faces were practically touching. "If you knew everything about me and my sources, my life would end with an interestingly sudden death." He laughed as she punched his arm, and both of them walked back the way he had come from.

She suddenly noticed something important and slapped her head with her left hand. "Oh, I forgot to ask! Where's your omnipresent shadow today?" She teased. He frowned, and a shadow crossed his face. Her smile slowly faded. "Edo-Kun? Is Al-kun alright? I was only away for a couple of days, that's not long enough for anything to happen, right? Right?!?!?" She panicked. All of a sudden, Ed burst out laughing. She stared at him for a couple of seconds. "NOT FUNNY MORON!!!!!!!!! I WAS SERIOUSLY WORRIED ABOUT AL THERE!!!!! GOD, WHAT IS WITH YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR?!?!?!?!?" She stormed off in a huff, trying to hide her smile as Ed lost his balance on the sand dunes due to being doubled up laughing. In this way, they covered half the distance to Central. "Where is Al, anyways?" she asked reluctantly.

"Helping out Mustang," He replied. "There was a few.... minor jobs that had to be done." Ed smirked to himself and Ichigo wondered what the "minor jobs" entailed. Her beautiful face scrunched into a deep frown as she tried to catch Al's mental waves. The distance made it harder for her, but it wasn't as hard as, say, getting into a cat's mind. Now THAT was hard, strange as it may sound; Ichigo's theory was that the cat's mind was almost identical to her own, causing problems with the waves that were transmitted. Ichigo's mind was always transmitting waves, because of her mental capabilities. This meant that the waves coming into her mind were cancelled out by the waves leaving her mind. Sometimes, if she concentrated really hard, she could just read the outermost thoughts.

And BOY, were they interesting. Cats always got into the most interesting places, she thought wistfully. Then she awoke from her daydreams with a start as she found Al's mind. It was hard to explain how she found people; suffice to say, everyone has their own distinctive aura. It was easier to see some auras than others; Al's, for instance. Ed's was probably the easiest, no matter what distance, because of the bond that they shared. Her forehead smoothed out as she asked Al how his jobs were going, through the temporary mental link that she had forged. She opened her eyes, keeping the tenacious link open as she asked Ed if anything had happened whilst she was away.

"Not really, no. Ling stopped by with Ran-Fan; they're thinking of moving into central. Ling still wants to know how our alchemy works, and-"

"How to become immortal?" Ichigo finished his sentence for him. He laughed.

"Yeah, he just won't give up on it. I don't know how many times Al has told him it's not all it's cracked up to be, and the fact that the far East's medicinal alchemy is more likely to hold the secret than ours; he just doesn't LISTEN!" Ed growled. He really takes this to heart, Ichigo observed.

"Edo-kun.... Has Al....." She didn't know how to finish her sentence.

"He's recalled more, yes. Not all, but most." He stopped walking and turned to face her; they were around twenty minutes away from Central now. "If not for you, Ichigo, he wouldn't be in his current form. He - and I - are forever in your debt for that." Ichigo smiled softly.

"If not for you, Edo-kun, my life wouldn't be worth living. Remember what I was like when you met me?" Ed tips his head to the side quizzically.

"Sure, you were an unbelievably peppy, annoyingly happy person – not much different from now, actually." He laughed, and her smile spread into a wide grin.

"Only on the outside. You two helped me overcome that barrier; the pressure to be happy even when I just wanted to die. Remember, my mom and dad – my old mom and dad – had just died. I was alone."

"You brought me back to life, Edo-kun."

Ed stared at her, awestruck. She's never revealed this much detail before, even to him. He moved towards her instinctively and wrapped his arms around her from behind. She leaned back into the embrace, relaxed for the first time in three days – the last time he hugged her. This one gesture is her safety mechanism, all that's needed to release her from the world. She loves him for giving her this release. They stood there for a few minutes, not saying anything, comfortable in each other's presence. Then Ichigo sighed, and the moment was over; it was time to get back to work.