Author's Notes: This wasn't a fic request, but I had to write this. It's super important to me and I needed it in my life. This will mark as the first time I've written Al's daemon Anima after she's settled. Set shortly post-Promised Day (which I'm in the middle of writing the daemon AU of), it's a very bittersweet piece of writing, but I wanted to end it on a high note. The Elric brothers deserve some happiness and I've put Riza's Wojciech through the ringer. Like usual though, I start with the angst. This is also the most I've written about Roy and Shula being severed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, bye.

they who brave the storm

Wojciech could barely hold back his excitement as they walked through the hospital hallways. Riza had been given permission to walk on her own a few days ago, but they still hadn't been allowed to do everything that they wanted. Daemons healed faster than their humans, but Riza had nearly died ten times over. She felt at the bandage around her throat, remembering how hot her blood had been as it had spilled out of her, but mostly she remembered Wojciech bleeding golden Dust. It had shimmered so brightly. Maybe that was why people thought they saw a light when they died; it was their own souls turning into Dust and vanishing in the dark.

Being cooped up in the hospital room she shared with Roy had been frustrating. Though her wounds had been extensive and she had lost a lot of blood, Wojciech hadn't been injured terribly. By the third day, he was rearing to go for a run, being driven mad by the four walls that surrounded them and his grief. She could barely get any sleep with Wojciech being so restless. He paced the room and would jump up to look out the window, describing whatever he could see. Roy always asked, able to hear Wojciech's nails click on the floor and tap at the window, and he always obliged.

Mostly though, Riza thought that Wojciech was desperate to leave the room so that he could escape the guilt that had seeped into his mind. No matter what Roy or Shula said, nothing could shake that feeling out of him. It rested in the back of her mind too, but she didn't voice it aloud. They had failed to protect him and in the end, it had cost him dearly.

"It's not your fault," Shula had snapped, sounding legitimately angry, which had startled Riza. "We opened the Gate."

Not by choice. They had been forced. And they had been severed as a consequence anyways.

After that, Shula had left the room, prowling the dark hallways of the hospital by herself. Roy hadn't even blinked or shifted uncomfortably in his bed. He just said, "She's gone, isn't she?" in the quietest voice and then laid down on his side with his back to her and the door after Riza confirmed. He had heard the door fall shut, but hadn't been able to feel the distance between them. Wojciech's desire to chase after Shula had tugged at her, but he couldn't leave without Riza. By the time Shula had come back, hours later, her head was low and her ears flat, and she'd crawled into Riza's bed, trembling and quiet.

Wojciech was struggling to be around Roy and Shula when they were like this. Adjusting to being severed was a difficult and long process. No one really knew what it was like or how it felt, save for alchemists that committed human transmutation, as most people died from the shock. Roy could've perhaps asked Edward or phoned the boy's alchemy teacher, Izumi Curtis, but he'd stayed silent instead. Shula seemed to drift in and out of reality, going great distances from Roy one moment and being completely separate to clinging desperately to Roy and being needy for attention the next.

Stop it, Wojciech told her. There will be good days again and this is one of them.

Riza took a deep breath as they rounded the corner and nodded her head. Yes, this would be a good day. Days had passed slowly since the Promised Day, but finally, after what felt like forever, they would be able to see the one boy who all of this had been for. It had taken some needling, but they'd finally be able to visit Alphonse and his Anima. Wojciech's steps became lighter and his ears perked up as he thought about the little bobcat daemon. They'd kept him under observation to keep him from getting sick because of his shot immune system, but the green light for visitations had finally been lit.

Knocking on the door, Riza waited until she heard a voice call, "Come in," noting the distinct lack of the metallic sound she'd come to associate with Alphonse. She smiled as she poked her head into the room and spotted Alphonse sitting up in the bed with Edward in a chair at his side. Before any of them could get a word of greeting in, Wojciech nudged past her and practically burst inside, knocking the door back so hard that it hit the wall.

"Wojciech!" Anima laughed. By the time she bounded off of Alphonse's lap and landed lightly on the floor, Wojciech was already there, nuzzling against her.

Anima was a little animal, as scrawny as Alphonse, perhaps because of her time not physically existing, and more child-like as well. Riza thought her growth had been stunted ever since Alphonse's body had been torn apart through the Gate of Truth, but no one could be sure, as the two of them were one of a kind. Riza didn't think it mattered though; all that mattered was that Anima had been returned to Alphonse and while they were still severed she and Alphonse could feel love and comfort again.

"And what do you think you're doing hiding over there, Alethea?" Wojciech asked, walking over to the other side of the bed as Anima followed cheerfully behind him. Being so much bigger, Wojciech easily picked up Ed's daemon by the scruff of her neck, pulling her out into the open. Alethea scowled as only a wolverine could, but did not fight or run away once Wojciech set her down. Instead, she allowed him to lick her down her back.

Joy glowed in Riza's chest as she watched Wojciech play with the two smaller daemons. It had been a very long time since happiness had shined so brightly in Wojciech. There had been plenty of other times when he had been happy, but not like this. It was like all the joy in him was melting the grief away. He hopped around them, like a big comical dog, as Alethea and Anima swiped at his paws and tail, laughing as he did so. Anima was smaller and enjoyed trying to climb up his side, still clearly getting used to her body and not being able to shift into another animal, while Alethea made calculated attacks. All Wojciech had to do was bump into them with his head and they'd topple over or get pushed back, but he was careful with them, never using his large paws and being aggressive.

Finally, Wojciech laid down and rolled onto his side, allowing Alethea to crawl on top of him. She grasped one of his ears with her more deft paws and nibbled at it, but he didn't move to stop him. Meanwhile, Anima stretched to lay against his belly while she toyed with one of his paws. It was so big compared to hers, but she pressed her little ones against the pads of his front paw before licking it. Wojciech breathed and closed his eyes.

It wasn't just happiness that flowed through him. It was content. He was at peace. Amestris had been saved, but more importantly, Edward and Alphonse had accomplished their goals. Sometimes, it was the little things that mattered the most.

"It's nice seeing Alethea so playful again," Ed said quietly from his bedside seat. Truth be told, it had been a very long time since she had seen Wojciech act so playful as well. He was like that on a few occassions, mostly with Elicia Hughes' tiny unsettled daemon. He had also acted similarly upon meeting Winry Rockbell and her daemon Basil for the first time. There was something about children that brought out something new in him, something lighter and hopeful.

Alphonse beamed. "I know we're severed, but I swear I can feel how happy Anima is right now. Maybe it's just because she was gone for so long."

"It doesn't matter if you're severed," Riza said, though she didn't really have much a clue about what was going on. "Anima is home, where she belongs."

She had to believe that - for Roy and Shula's sake. She could not live in a world where she did not have hope for them. Wojciech opened his eyes to gaze up at her, sensing her troubled thoughts, and she let them slip away. Now was not the time to dwell on dark things that she feared. Now was the time for hope and something good. He huffed in contentment and closed his eyes again.

Stepping forward, Riza pulled up a chair and sat down on the other side of Alphonse's bed. "Enough of that though. I want to hear all the things you plan on doing now that you have your body back."

As Alphonse talked animatedly about his grand ideas and plans (many of which revolved around food), Riza let herself get swepped away. Edward interjected here and there and the two of them would get into it in that way only brothers and best friends could do, reminding her of Roy and Hughes back in the day, and she would laugh and smile. If these boys could go through all that they had and come out still hopeful and bright, then she knew that Roy and Shula would be able to do the same. She glanced back at Anima and relaxed as she watched the bobcat daemon curl up against Wojciech.

Shula was going to love that little cat so much. Severed or not, it would be impossible for Roy not to feel it.