Written for fma_fic_contest, for the prompt: "Not all who wander are lost." - JRR Tolkien

Won third place. Hasn't been betaed due to the short length.


Smoke from the train obscured his window, blocking the upcoming station from view. Still, Ed peered out of it, keeping an eye out for whoever would be there, waiting for him. Excitement was building in his chest; he'd been gone for almost a month this time, the longest trip he'd taken in a while, and he hated going so long without seeing Winry or the kids.

After their kids had been born, he'd wanted to stop completely. He wasn't going to be like his dad, leaving them when they needed him. He wasn't going to be gone in case something bad happened. Winry had convinced him otherwise.

You aren't your father, Winry said. You'll come back.

His mom had said that too, that his father would come back. She'd always said it, and even though she had believed it (and been right, in the end) it had still made her sad, and Ed wondered if she had sometimes doubted that Hohenheim would return at all.

Winry, though, smiled when she said it, and he'd known in that moment that she was right. His father had always been searching, always been leaving them behind, wandering toward an uncertain goal.

Ed wasn't like that, though, because he had what he wanted. Right there, waiting for him on the platform, and he wasn't going to waste it.

When he left, his goal wasn't his destination or his research; it was to come home, and he always did.