The brown haired boy was back. He stared at his shaking hands with blurred vision. His naked body was foreign. When did his limbs become so lanky? Why was his torso so long?

A burning sensation came to his throat. A breath shattered from his body. When did breathing become so agonizing?

The boy was panting now. Just propping himself up as weak as he was took all the energy he could muster. A loud crash sounded somewhere nearby. A worried shriek called his name from somewhere in the abyss. Shimmering gold flitted in and out of his vision before the blackness spread. Fuzzy colors whirred in front of his eyes like bad reception on a TV. His name was still being called. He tried answering but raspy breathing noises were the only things to escape his parted lips.

The boy floated in and out of consciousness. A warm hand grabbed his left hand. A couple of minutes passed like days and days passed by like seconds. Nothing made sense. He was only getting snippets of conversation. A word here, sentence there.

"Alphonse, look who's here! Winry came to visit!" an almost psychotic voice announced from his bedside. A cool hand replaced the warm one. A distinct beeping and wheezing echoed in the quiet room

"How long have you been here?" a woman's voice whispered.

"A couple days. I'm fine. I don't need anything," the crazy voice boomed.

"Ed, I know you're worried, but he needs his rest. With what Al's been through, he's going to take weeks to recover," she said calmly.

"I don't care! I'll always be with him! Always!"

There was a crash followed by a tinkling noise that sounded almost like tiny bells.

Then everything was muffled like a muted radio. It was days before the boy awoke again.

His eyelids fluttered open. He saw a white tiled ceiling. When he looked to his right, he could see the fluttering curtains enshrouding the blue sky and streaks of golden blonde hair. Weary gold eyes were upon his face. A smile lit up the gold eyes and they approached the boy.

"Al," they whispered to him.

"Ed?" Al asked, fully seeing the face for what seemed like the first time.