August 27, 1926

"Al, run away! It's going to explode!" I scream, nearly tearing my brother's coat as I yank him towards me.

"W-what?!" Al yelps, stumbling back as I drag him, "What's going to explode?!"

"THAT!" I say, pointing to a small beaker of a rapidly bubbling substance. "Once the bubbling subsides, everything around it's gonna be toast!"

"Are you sure you didn't take any tips from that uranium bomb guy, brother? This sounds awfully like a bomb," Al asks, a hint of suspicion etched in his voice.

I huff in exasperation. "Who do you take me for? This is my OWN explosive—I don't steal ideas! Now we gotta take cover quick—this thing is gonna pop pretty soon!"

Al and I jump behind my large and cluttered desk for cover and prop some books around us for extra protection. We dare to peek our heads over the top to try to see what the bubbling substance is doing.

"Any minute now," I whisper.

We wait for about a minute more.

"Brother, nothing's happening," Al whispers back, "All it's doing is bubbling over a little."

"Shut up! Something's gonna happen!"

"Brother, are you sure it's going to explode?"

"Yes!"

"Do you really mean that?"

I bite my lip.

"Brother?" Al asks.

"Maybe," I reply, "I don't know, it looked like it was going to."

Al stands up, sighing and shaking his head, and begins to walk toward the vial.

"Stop!" I call from the desk, "It could still explode!"

"If it hasn't by now, it won't ever," Al responds, looking more closely at the beaker, "Plus, brother, I think you mixed up the compounds to put together. Instead of water and a sodium potassium mix, which is what you said you mixed in this lab report you have over here, I think you mixed baking soda and vinegar."

I peer out from the desk tentatively. "Really? You sure?"

"Yeah, come take a look!"

I hesitantly step out from my fort of protection, making my way towards Al with great caution. I'm relying only on my previous experiences in battle to sense what is going to happen next, and this little chemical reaction could be my worst enemy yet.

No, never mind. Izumi was pretty bad.

I sigh as soon as I see it. "Huh. I think you're right. I guess I mislabeled my vials or something. Must've been tired when I doing that." I grinned. "Well, at least now I know the CORRECT combination could result in an explosion."

"Brother, that could've turned out way differently! What if you were just trying to do a baking soda and vinegar reaction?" Al scolds me.

I wave him off with my prosthetic arm, pulling off the misleading labels with my real hand. "Oh, please. I wouldn't do that. There's no point if you already know what's going to happen."

"You never know!"

I roll my eyes. "Fine, fine, whatever. I'm sorry, I won't accidentally mislabel anything again."

There is a pause as I write the new labels on the bottles.

"Chemistry is hard, isn't it?" Al sighs.

"It's nothing like alchemy," I say without looking up.

"But we're gonna get through it, right? We're going to continue to learn about this world and its science and not turn back, not try to open that gate up again, right?"

I stop writing.

"Brother, I saw your letters to Winry. You can't send them to her. You know that, don't you?"

I look up at him, angry. "Of course I know that! I know it's not possible, logical, scientific, anything like that, and I know we've already closed the gate. I just…I just miss it. Our world. I miss everything, everyone there…hell, I even miss Colonel Mustang, if that tells you anything. I…just wanted to pretend I could still talk to her. You know, after I hadn't for such a long time. I took her for granted." I sigh. "I kind of took everything for granted there, didn't I?"

Al smiles at me. "We both did. But now we're here, and we can't take this world for granted now either. It's been two years, Ed. We need to move on."

I look down at the ground. "I guess so."

But I still can't forget about it.

About her.