Disclaimer: Fullmetal alchemist is not mine. Unfortunately, 'cause it was, Winry and Ed will be now together. But it isn't, so i can just play a little with its characters...

Chapter one: The Elric

We came here for a reason, not because we wanted this world to be ours, but because it had to be. We didn't have much of a choice, and it wasn't just or the portal, either. It was just because I felt I had to bring things back to where they belonged. And now? Now the ship is gone from my world, my real world, the one I really belong to, and the bomb that arrived her from there is now vanished, too. It took almost 3 years, more or less, to Al and me to find and destroy it, and now… now here we are. 3 years, 3 long years, in which I tried to make this world my own, but I wasn't able to. I tried, I really tried, and so hard… at the beginning I believed that, having Al at my side again, it was going to be easier, but it wasn't, and still it isn't. This isn't the world I belong to, the people I belong to. The blonde girl I met in France several weeks ago can seem her, be like her but she isn't my…my Winry I know, I don't have the right to call her "my", but somehow I know it's true. I know w belong to each other. I know it when we were six and Warren, one of our friends, "married" us, and I really understood it when I came back, 3 years ago. I know, I did it only for few hours, and we didn't spend do much time together, but that day, when I saw how she hugged me, how she always traveled with a new pair of automails hoping to meet me, hoe she figured out how much I could change during the 2 years I spend away from her, how she waited for me… and knowing that I did the same things, I understood that we were, and still are, made for each other. When Al asked me if I was going to abandon her again, my heart crushed in millions of pieces. For a moment, I hoped that she wasn't going to wait for me for the rest of her life, but now I just hope she did it, 'cause I'll find a way to come back, I swear to God. And once I'll do it, I'll go to knock at her door, and, once she will open me, when she'll look at me with surprise, with wide eyes and open mouth, I'll kiss her, immediately, I'll confess her my love and tell her that I've done with the alchemy and the military as well. And I'll tell her that, now that I've done what I've to do, I'll belong only to her, for the rest of my life. Ok, this is if she says that she loves me, too. Wait, no., I can't start to think like that. She loves me, damn, I understood it, me too! But what if she didn't understood it, or she didn't wait for me? No, No, stop. She loves me, she has just to admit it at loud, but once I'll tell her that I love her, she'll do the same. Right? Right, sure, I can't be wrong. Now, the biggest problem…

"Brother, what are you thinking about?" Ed looked at the boy in front of him, his one year younger than him little brother. Things hanged a lot during the last 3 years…. They were both two grown up men, and, fro Ed's great pride, he was now taller than Al who, once had his memory back, changed his style totally. He cut his hair (something that Ed did too, but just a bit), and changed the clothes that were once Ed's ones, using now more common shirts (white, grey or light blue ones, usually), and grey, black or brown pants. Ed too wore more causal clothes, the only thing that remained of what it seemed a long lost youth was his long blonde hair.

"Big Brother, what are thinking about?" Al repeated. It took several minutes to Ed to understand that Al was talking to him, although he was the one and only over there, and he was looking straight in his eyes; then, the flames of the fire that they enlightened in the cold German forest few hour before, awakened him, like from a dream. Still at open mouth and eyes, he looked at Al for an interminable instant, then he lowered he eyes, turning his attention to the fire, sobbing.

"I…We have to come back. I feel like…"

"Like we don't belong here – his brother completed his sentence, looking at the fire, like him – I know how you feel, brother, 'cause its the same for me. but how can we do that? We destroyed the portal!"

"I don't know, but I'll find a way, I'm sure of it. I mean, it's not like the alchemy doesn't exist here, it just never developed as well as in our world. But it existed, especially in the Middle Age, and there are still few places where it could be still utilized… to be more precise, at least three." A light of hope appeared in his eyes. It was a lifetime that Al didn't see his brother shining that way.

"Three places, you say. Are you sure? Where are they? When do we leave? Where do we go first?" Al was enthusiastic, his voice couldn't hide it, neither his expression, nor the questions he was firing quickly as a lightening.

"Yes, there are 3 cities, here in Europe, they are called the "magical triangle", and we are going to leave to visit one of them. – a grin appeared on his face; he was again the old Ed, the one Al missed so much, the one who had been so cold and distant for too long – I heard someone using Alchemy in a city called Turin, in Italy. It's where we are going to go, and where Noah went, too. Let's say that she was the one giving me the information. Maybe alchemy doesn't exist here, but her powers are real, and she is developing them very well. Now she isn't just able to read people's minds when they are dreaming, but she can contact them through their dreams, too. It's how she contacted me, telling me about a certain Count DeGiacomo, who seems to be a real alchemist."

"I can't understand why you didn't tell me before, why you had to wait." Al was sad, almost with tears in his eyes; was it because he was hear-broken from his brother's behavior, or was it for joy, for the thought that he was probably going to come back home? Ed didn't know, but he felt like he was a bad person; he knew he had to keep it secret for Al's safety, but, well, it wasn't enough.

"I just… - he explained, sad as he hadn't been in a long time – I just didn't want to give you false hopes. But now, now I had to tell you, 'cause we are really going to do it, we are really going to come back home!" Winry, please, wait for me a little longer, I'm returning to you…

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