Home
He'd seen every face twice except for one.
They'd traveled everywhere there was to travel, at least in Europe. Traveling here was harder than just traipsing around with your boots and suitcases, expecting everyone to stop and chat on the way. Everyone was different. Faces that they recognized weren't exactly the same as they had been at home.
Edward wondered why, after all this time, he still considered Amestris to be home. They weren't there anymore, were not even in the same world, let alone country. He hadn't been home in five years now, Al in three. But Al had settled right in, despite Ed's desire to constantly travel. Any time they came into money Ed was off, searching, restless, but Al had settled down. Found a girlfriend, found a job, was taking classes at a local university. They'd settled in London. It was a mess; Hitler had dropped bomb upon bomb on the bustling city, but had retreated just months ago, leaving everyone to pick up the pieces. Ed had helped, of course, and Al had thrown himself into it, but he couldn't stay still for long; two weeks into restoration, he took off to Poland amidst Al's constant fears that he would be dragged into the ongoing war. But Ed was no longer a part of the military and had no desire to be.
After all, the one person he'd (reluctantly) take orders from was the one face he had yet to find.
He wasn't in the military. Ed had discovered personnel files years ago but there were no photos of him anywhere. Bradley, whom he had struck up an unlikely friendship with (considering who he had been in the other world) had never seen him either in the film industry. By all accounts, he could have just been a commoner, but judging how most of the faces he met again had been in some way attached to the lifestyle they had in his world, Ed seriously doubted that.
It was just . . . he needed to find him. At least for some closure.
He never considered that there was a reason he couldn't find him, just like there was a reason he couldn't find the face that mirrored his own.
Because there were not two of them between the worlds. There was only enough room for one Edward Elric.
And there was only enough room for one Roy Mustang.
"Ed."
He paused in the middle of the street, flesh hand curled tightly into a fist. The air tasted different, and the smell was not of this world. Ed knew, because the same smell lasted on him, even now. "Roy," he whispered, throat dry.
The real Roy. Not a look alike. There probably wasn't one.
Not that anyone could replace his Roy.
The man smiled, looking him over with his one eye, and held out a suitcase. "Winry said you'd need this."
"How did you do it?" Ed murmured, staring across the table at the man eating there, devouring his food like he'd gone days without it. Who knew, maybe he had.
"We discovered residual energy where the gate had been closed. I should have noticed it immediately, but things were rather busy. The energy was channeled into opening it for one person to go through."
"Why would you come here? There's nothing for you. Alchemy doesn't work."
"Amestris wasn't my home anymore."
"This world isn't mi—"
He looked up, met that single dark eye that gave him such an expression that he understood immediately what had been wrong with his thinking this entire time.
It was now, as of this moment. Because Roy was here. That was it, the entire time. The reason why he couldn't accept this world. Because he was missing the key reason why any place was home.
Someone to come home to.
For the first time in years, Ed smiled and meant it. He understood what Roy was really saying, underneath all that.
"I love you too," he answered.