(DIETRICH)

I couldn't believe it. This was something I'd never thought possible. Us returning to the Boarding House. Though I was the one trying to keep a level head...I couldn't help but shed some tears of joy as well.

As we stepped through the threshold of the building, old memories flooded back. Ones I'd long abandoned for fear I'd never experience anything like it again. Never get to just sit down and have a few drinks with Eddward and Alfons.

I looked around with wide eyes as we entered, taking it all in. The familiar dimly lit main room with candles illuminating tables, the cracked, dusty floorboards, the smell of alcohol permeating the air. We were home.

Sacha and Helena stood mingling with a few people, Luca sat at a table across from Christine. Though she was giggling, he just seemed bored.

Briar ran forward and I careened a bit without her to lean against for balance.

"Helena! Sacha! Luca! Christine!" she cried, holding her hands over her mouth. She repeated their names in a whisper, as if to reassure herself that they were really there, and we were really here.

Each of them stopped what they were doing and looked towards us, then staring for a few seconds. I closed the distance between Briar and I, still looking around in awe.

"Briar...? Dietrich...?" Luca mumbled.

Christine hopped up and ran over to us, wrapping her arms around us and accidentally forcing me to fall over. "Sorry!" she squealed. "I just... You're back!"

"Mostly..." I mumbled as Briar frantically helped me up. Sacha and Helena smiled at us, but didn't approach us.

Luca made his way over to us in shock, a steady smile growing on his face. "I can't believe it..." he mumbled. "Is this real?"

I embraced him, as did Briar. "You'd better believe it," she said.

"But how...?"

"Well..." I mumbled.

"We can explain later," Briar interjected. "Are Eddward and Alfons here?"

I saw Luca's eyes widen and Christine's get glassy. Luca's eyes shifted away as he nervously ran his hand through his hair.

"Bri... Dee..." he whispered. "They... They're both dead."

"What?" Briar and I said simultaneously.

"No..." Briar mumbled over and over. "No, no, no... No they're not. They're not dead. You're lying! They wouldn't just-!" She pulled at her hair as tears streamed from her eyes. Luca returned her sorrowful gaze, indicating to her that he was telling the truth.

I stared the ground, frozen. This couldn't be possible... No... I didn't even want to ask what fate befell them. Not yet. I clenched my teeth and wiped my eyes, not wanting to let any more tears fall. What good would they do?

Even though they would do nothing to help...I couldn't stop them.

I wrapped my arms around Briar, whom was on the verge of madness, weeping.

"I'm sorry..." Luca said. "I know it's terrible... And..." He took a deep breath and wiped his eyes. "You two need some rest, okay?" He put his hand on our shoulders, drawing our attention to him. "You know where your room is." He gave a brief sad smile.

I was able to control myself long enough to lead Briar upstairs to the room we'd always stayed in before. The room where Edd and Al would talk and laugh with us. It pained me that we would never see those faces again. Those faces we'd known all our lives. The two boys we would play with when we were children. The stubborn one and the sweet one.

I limped into the room, putting all of my weight on my left leg, looking around the room, which had remained mostly unchanged since the last time we'd been there. I dropped down onto the bed and rubbed my red eyes. "We're home..." I mumbled.

"Yeah..." Briar sniffed, still sobbing. I knew how she felt, but knew I couldn't comfort her. The way she'd loved Eddward would be impossible for her to just let go. She sat down next to me and leaned her head on my shoulder. I smoothed her hair and told her everything was okay.

"We need to sleep," I told her. She rubbed her eye and nodded. I stood, shakily, to go to the bed on the opposite wall, then collapsed on the bed. I still was not used to my prosthetic, and it was painful to even use. I pulled my leg up onto the bed and pulled off the wooden prosthetic, sitting it on the floor.

Briar crawled under the covers of her bed and I did the same, ecstatic to feel the warmth of a real bed again. I was happy with the old dirty mattress with stiff springs. It felt amazing.

A/N: Meg again. Plot starts next chapter, and new characters. Helena is Lust, and Sacha is Scar. We never make that very clear until later, I believe. Luca is a character that is alternate from another story I wrote with Demy (who writes for Dietrich) who is Scar's son. I write for Briar, which was who the POV was last chapter. Are we up to speed here? No. Si. Too bad.

MOVING ON.

Please r and r! (I am taking one-shot requests. I'm working on a lot right now, but a lot of my cowriters don't like to write, so I need work in between.)