Chapter One

"Hey Ed, you sure you're ok?" Edward Elric glanced lazily up at the speaker from his lounging position on the couch. His golden eyes met hers for a moment, and he arched an eyebrow at Winry – who currently stood with her hands on her hips and her familiar, 'I'm concerned about you so I'm going to pretend to be mad' expression.
"Of course," he replied, strangely flatly, "Why wouldn't I be?"
Winry frowned, before deciding to try something. Smirking cheekily, she straddled the blonde boy, aware of the fact that she was wearing a miniskirt.
Nothing. No reaction. Winry bit her lip. They'd been dating for a year; since Al had gotten his human body back. So why was Ed acting like this?

Testing, she moved in towards Ed as if to kiss him. In response, he leaned back into the couch cushions. Winry cocked her head to the side.
"See? You lean away whenever I get close to you. Why?" Ed flinched and looked away, stuttering.
"I… well…"
-"You're not even giving me a straight answer! Ed, what's going on?"
-"It's nothing horrible, ok? You don't have to worry."
-"Why can't you tell me?"
-"It's not something I really wanna share."
-"Well at least tell Al. Talk to someone about it."

The doorbell rang, both teenagers turning their heads to the sound. Ed sighed in relief.
"They're here. Let's go to dinner."
Moving to the stairs, Ed called up. "Al, get down here! It's time to go!"
"Coming Brother!" A cute, brunette fifteen year old bounced down the stairs, tugging at his jacket a little nervously.
Winry smiled at the boy. "Hey Al. How's your day been?"
Al gave a small shrug. "Ok. I was just reading. Nothing that exciting. Not like you two," he added with a grin.
Ed hit Al on the back of the head. "Shut up. Come on guys, let's go. Mustang and Hawkeye probably don't wanna be kept waiting."

After dinner, Al glared between Ed and Winry as everyone was walking home. The two were walking suspiciously far apart. Ed was at a distance from everyone else, whistling softly as he walked. Winry was practically stomping, quite a while behind Ed.
"Hey guys, are you fighting?"
-"No Al," both said at the same time. Al scowled.
"Not a child anymore," he grumbled to himself. After his time spent in the armour, everyone kept forgetting he was fifteen and not ten. On top of that, Ed seemed hell bent on making sure Al had a childhood. Which was great and all, but it was kinda smothering sometimes. And, of course, no one ever told him anything.

Ed was lost in his thoughts, distracted. Winry wanted him to talk to someone. Preferably her, or Al at the very least. He admitted he probably should. But how could he? This wasn't exactly a normal situation for him to be in, and the consequences of telling anyone could be dire. Not just for himself, but for those he cared about. If he told Al or Winry what was going on… he could lose them. And he wasn't about to let that happen.
Noticing Al's sombre mood, Ed threw him a quick smile. "I'm fine Al, don't worry." Al frowned in concern.
"Are you sure? What's going on between you and Winry?"
-"Nothing too big. We'll be ok."
Al nodded, still worried. But Ed figured he'd get over it after a while. Once he figured this whole thing out, he'd tell Al. And maybe Al would understand. They were brothers, after all.

"Wait up." It was Riza Hawkeye. She had her gun out (where was she keeping that thing?) and was gesturing to the ground in front of her. Running back to her, Ed saw something that made his heart skip a beat.
Glinting in the pale moonlight was a puddle of blood.
Roy Mustang pulled out his famous flame alchemy gloves, nodding to a trail of the sticky red substance that lead down an alleyway. Ed scowled.
"Winry I'll see you at home, ok?"
Winry looked like she was about to argue, before simply nodding. She kissed Ed quickly on the cheek- flinching slightly as he attempted to dodge- and left.
"Al, you too."
No response. Ed turned to AL and saw a strange look on his face. One he'd never seen before, and couldn't decipher. It almost looked like a mixture of sorrow, determination and fury.
"I'm staying."
-"Al-"
-"I'm staying."
Ed's brow creased a little at Al's unusually harsh words, but he nodded silently.

The four who remained behind, two adults and two teenage brothers, entered the alley.
The trail of blood continued for a while, culminating in two dead bodies lying on the pavement. Roy checked the bodies out quickly.
"They're both dead."
-"How did they die?" Both Elric brothers asked the question simultaneously; as if they were both waiting for the same terrible answer. But that was impossible… Al didn't know what was going on with Ed.
"Bloodloss, or so it seems."
Al sighed, closing his eyes for a moment and suddenly seeming much older than his fifteen years. Ed just barely caught him murmuring under his breath, "Sheetz… you idiot. What've you done now?" Ed's gold eyes narrowed, then flicked away as they caught Al's silver ones. Hawkeye shuddered.
"But Sir… the amount of blood we found was nowhere near enough to kill someone."
Roy nodded sombrely. "I agree. Maybe they were killed somewhere else, and then dragged here."
He sighed heavily. "The paperwork for this is going to be hell."

Winry stood as the boys returned. "What was it? Some stray dog, or something?"
Ed shook his head. "It was two people."
Her eyes widened. "Ed… were they…?"
Ed met her clear blue gaze, and nodded once. It didn't need to be spoken aloud.
Winry put a hand to her mouth, gasping. She took Ed by the hand, and dragged him upstairs. Ed went with her, but looked distant, uninterested. Al frowned at Ed's obvious lack of affection.

What was going on with those two? Winry seemed fine, she wanted Ed near her. But Ed just seemed not to care. That wasn't like him. Ed loved Winry, and had never done a very good job of hiding it. Al began to wonder if there was something else going on. After all, he'd seen similar physical traits in-
Al's mobile phone began ringing, distracting him from his thoughts. Flipping it open, he smiled. Speak of the devil…
"Hey," he answered. "What's up?" He paused as the person on the other end spoke.
"Well actually, I had a couple of questions for you about that. I was wondering if you could help me out?"

"Ed, look at me," Winry pleaded softly. Ed turned to her, apology evident in his eyes. Whatever was making him so distant, he didn't like it. That much was certain. But then why do it? It was almost the same as when Ed was forced to tell Al no, he couldn't do this or that. He didn't want to say it, but he had to.
"Please, tell me what's going on. I want to help you." She knew the answer before he spoke it, could see it in his face.
"Winry… There's nothing you can do. I know you want to help, and I appreciate that. But I can't tell you what's going on, ok?"
She sighed, closing her eyes in defeat. "Alright, I'll let you have this one. But promise me that if something really happens, and I mean really bad, you'll talk to someone. Kay?"
Ed nodded without hesitation. "Ok."

Despite her gut instinct to just let him rest, she felt a tug in her mind telling her to wake Ed up. The blonde's brow was furrowed, and he moaned slightly as he shifted positions. It was clear he was having a nightmare. She wasn't really surprised- he'd been having them for years. Ever since that night. Sometimes, she worried a lot about Ed. He never told anyone about his problems, he pretended to be brave even at his own cost and his brother always came first. Those were all admirable traits of course.
But sometimes she wondered…. What would happen the day Ed couldn't save one of them? What would happen to Ed?

As Ed lay in bed that night, strange dreams crossed his mind. The people found lying on the pavement, the darkness that was threatening to swallow him whole…. The two intertwined and silently promised to take him down. As he thrashed harder and harder against the evil that held him in its grasp, he began to wonder when the last time in his had been that he hadn't presented the world with a shield, a mask. When the last time was that he'd truly trusted somebody.
It certainly wasn't the first time he'd ever woken up screaming. And it wouldn't be his last.